Inherited property is one of the most common reasons people end up selling a house in the Valley, and it's the situation where good sequencing matters most. There are usually three things happening at once: a legal process, a tax clock, and a family with different opinions.
First, find out whether it's in a trust
If the property was held in a living trust, the successor trustee can generally sell it without going through probate. That's dramatically faster and cheaper. If it wasn't, the estate likely has to go through probate in the county where the property sits, which in Los Angeles County commonly takes many months and may require court confirmation of the sale depending on the authority granted.
This single fact changes your entire timeline, so establish it before you do anything else, including before you talk to an agent about listing.
Understand the stepped-up basis
When you inherit property, your cost basis is generally stepped up to the fair market value at the date of death rather than what the original owner paid. For a Valley home bought decades ago, that usually eliminates most or all of the capital gains exposure if you sell reasonably soon after inheriting.
Getting a defensible date-of-death valuation is therefore worth doing properly, and early. It's the number your eventual gain is measured against. Confirm the specifics with a CPA, this is genuinely tax advice territory and the details matter.
Then decide what to do with the house itself
Most inherited homes have deferred maintenance, dated systems, and decades of belongings in them. You broadly have three paths: clear it out and list it as-is, invest in targeted repairs to maximize the sale price, or sell directly to a buyer who takes it in current condition.
Which one is right depends on how much capital the estate can front, how quickly the heirs need resolution, and how far the house is from the people responsible for it. There's no universally correct answer, and anyone who gives you one without asking those questions isn't paying attention.