Durham Real Estate Blog

Please note: This article is meant to highlight the complexities of selling a rental property when an estate is involved. It is not tax or financial advice, and your situation should be discussed with your accountant and financial advisor. If you do not have an accountant or financial advisor, I would be happy to make some introductions — call or text me at 647-584-7782.

An inherited rental property raises a question that sounds simple: should the estate sell it, or should the beneficiary take ownership and sell later?

The decision starts with ownership and the tax history. Moving a property out of the estate does not automatically remove the income tax associated with it.

This guide concerns personally owned investment real estate held as capital property, unless stated otherwise. Corporate ownership, property held for resale and non-resident situations need separate analysis.

Four sale situations to distinguish

The CRA distinguishes an estate sale from a sale by a beneficiary after distribution. CRA: property sales after death.

What happens to a personally owned rental property at death?

Normally, death creates a deemed disposition at fair market value and a corresponding acquisition cost for the person acquiring the property. A qualifying spousal transfer is an important exception. Depreciable buildings have additional rules, so the CPA must calculate land and building amounts separately. Income Tax Act, section 70.

That creates two dates to understand: the date of death and the eventual sale date. Do not use the deceased's original purchase price as the estate's sale tax basis without having the CPA confirm it.

A simplified example: where does the gain arise?

Consider a hypothetical investment property with these figures:

Other outlays and expenses that may be eligible include advertising, surveyor’s fees, finder’s or brokerage fees and transfer taxes. Commission is negotiable and every figure here is illustrative. Have the CPA confirm which costs qualify; repairs and improvements can be treated differently from selling costs. CRA Capital Gains guide (T4037).

Under an ordinary non-spousal, capital-property scenario, the illustrative gain before death is $400,000. The later estate gain is $42,150: $900,000 less $800,000 less $57,850 in selling costs.

At the general one-half inclusion rate, those gains would contribute $200,000 and $21,075 respectively to taxable income before other adjustments. These are not the tax bills. The tax payable depends on the relevant taxpayer's income, deductions and other circumstances. Income Tax Act, section 38.

This example deliberately excludes CCA, land/building allocation, exemptions, rollovers, income allocations, mortgages and Ontario probate tax. It illustrates the timing of gains, not a complete rental-property calculation. A mortgage payout affects cash available; it does not replace the gain calculation.

Why CCA can change the tax estimate

Capital cost allowance is depreciation claimed for income-tax purposes. Previous claims can produce recapture when a building is sold or deemed sold. Recapture is income, rather than a capital gain subject to the capital-gains inclusion rate. Land is not depreciable, and a building loss may involve terminal-loss rules rather than an ordinary capital loss. CRA Rental Income guide.

Find the prior T776 forms and depreciation schedules. A property-value estimate alone cannot tell the CPA whether CCA was claimed.

Should the estate distribute the property before it is sold?

An in-kind distribution can sometimes transfer property to a beneficiary on a rollover basis. It does not necessarily reset the cost to its market value on the distribution date. The beneficiary may inherit the estate's tax position, with exceptions depending on the trust and beneficiary. Income Tax Act, section 107.

Compare the complete plan: legal authority, the will's terms, tax basis, liabilities, financing, registration costs and responsibility for future rent and expenses. If the beneficiary intends to sell immediately, ask what the additional ownership step actually accomplishes.

Also distinguish an inheritance distribution from a beneficiary buying the property. Do not assume Ontario land transfer tax treatment is identical. Ontario guidance on estate-to-individual transfers.

Does passing outside the estate avoid the tax?

Probate treatment and income-tax treatment are separate questions. Joint registration alone does not settle beneficial ownership or the tax result. A lawyer should examine the transfer's intention and evidence rather than assume survivorship resolves everything. The Supreme Court's Pecore decision, involving joint financial accounts, illustrates why intention and beneficial ownership matter; it is not a ruling that every jointly titled house has the same outcome. Pecore v. Pecore.

When a corporation owns the rental property, the deceased may own shares rather than the building directly. That changes the analysis and can create more than one tax layer. Obtain coordinated estate and corporate tax advice. BDO: estate-planning considerations.

What if the property falls in value after death?

Ask the CPA about graduated rate estate loss planning before distributing the asset. Current CRA guidance describes a subsection 164(6) election for eligible net capital losses from the GRE's first three taxation years for deaths after August 11, 2024; older deaths generally have a first-year rule. Eligibility, the estate's tax years, loss character and filing requirements matter. CRA: net capital losses.

This is not a reason to rush a sale or assume any price decline produces a refund. It is a reason to ask the accountant early.

Does the estate's age affect the plan?

A qualifying graduated rate estate has a limited period of up to 36 months after death. Have the CPA confirm its status, tax years and the consequences of continuing to hold property beyond that period. Three taxation years and 36 months are different concepts. CRA: who should file a T3 return.

Also flag any commercial use, substantial renovation, development activity or non-resident ownership for separate tax advice. Used residential housing and commercial real estate can have different GST/HST treatment; an estate sale label does not settle it. CRA: real property and GST/HST.

A tenant is part of the sale plan

Do not build the budget on an assumed vacant sale. Review the lease, lawful rent, deposits, access requirements and any proposed possession arrangement. Selling is not, by itself, a termination ground. Purchaser-use procedures have specific conditions. Landlord and Tenant Board guidance.

For marketing, accurate rent and expense records help a buyer assess the property. For the estate, they also make administration and accounting easier.

Before choosing a route, ask these questions

• Who legally and beneficially owns the property now?
• Is the proposed transaction an estate sale, a distribution or a purchase by a beneficiary?
• What tax basis, CCA history and loss opportunities has the CPA confirmed?
• What cash must remain available for taxes, debts and administration?
• How do occupancy, property condition and the current market affect sale timing?

The real estate plan should follow those answers. My role is to help establish current market positioning and a practical marketing and preparation plan, working alongside your professional advisers.

If the property is in Durham Region or a nearby GTA community, request an estate property sale review, or call 647-584-7782.

This is general information for Ontario executors, beneficiaries and owners, not legal, tax or accounting advice. Every estate is different. Obtain individual advice from an estates lawyer and a CPA.

Updated October 6, 2026.

Carmine Cupelli, Broker, SRS, CLHM, ABR, SRES, RENE — RE/MAX Hallmark First Group Realty Ltd., Brokerage · 647-584-7782

If you have ever typed "power of sale" into a listing site, looked at the handful of results for a region of 700,000 people, and concluded there is not much out there — you were reading the data correctly and drawing the wrong conclusion.

I have been tracking Power of Sale properties in Durham Region for 30 years. Since July 2026 I have also kept a systematic list of every Power of Sale and estate sale across Whitby, Oshawa, Ajax, Pickering, Clarington, Uxbridge, Scugog and Brock. As of October 1, 2026, 196 of those properties are on the market and not yet sold conditionally: 106 Power of Sale and 90 estate.

Fourteen of them say so publicly.

That is 7%. The other 182 are identifiable only through information available to licensed REALTORS: the name of the seller on record, or remarks written by the listing agent for other agents rather than for the public.

Why most of them stay quiet

There is no conspiracy here, and it is worth understanding the reasons because they tell you something useful about the seller.

A lender exercising Power of Sale in Ontario has a duty to take reasonable steps to obtain fair market value for the property. Advertising "POWER OF SALE" in the public remarks does the opposite — it invites every bargain hunter in the GTA to open below asking. So a lot of institutional sellers simply do not mention it. The listing looks like any other listing. The only tell is the name in the seller field, which the public does not see.

Estates are quieter still, for a different reason. Of the 90 estate properties on the market right now, not one says so publicly. Executors are usually not trying to signal motivation to buyers — they are trying to settle an estate with as little drama as possible, often while managing beneficiaries who disagree about the price. "Estate sale" in the public remarks invites exactly the pressure they are trying to avoid.

So the market you can see is not a small market. It is a small window onto a normal-sized one.

What is actually visible right now

Here is the publicly disclosed portion, as of October 1, 2026.

Power of Sale — 14 properties

• Across Ajax, Brock, Clarington, Oshawa, Pickering and Whitby
• Price range $239,900 to $1,299,990
• Six of the 14 are currently listed below their original asking price

Estate sales — none publicly disclosed

• All 90 estate properties currently on the market are identifiable only through REALTOR-only information

The cheapest publicly advertised Power of Sale property in Durham Region right now is a vacant lot in Brock at $239,900. The entry point in this market is lower than most people assume, largely because land and small condo units turn up in it more often than detached houses do.

The part where I disappoint you

These are not automatically bargains. I want to be direct about that, because the whole category is marketed as though it were.

An Ontario lender has that duty to pursue fair market value. An estate trustee has a parallel duty to the beneficiaries. Neither is permitted to give the property away, and neither wants to. Some of these properties are priced to move quickly. Others are priced at exactly what the comparables support, and you will pay what you would pay for any other house on that street.

Where the value actually sits is narrower and less exciting than the marketing suggests:

Condition. These properties skew toward original condition, deferred maintenance and long vacancies. If you can take on work, that is a real discount available to you and not to the buyer who needs move-in ready. If you cannot, this market has less to offer you than a normal search does.

Less competition. Not because the properties are hidden — the visible ones are on MLS like everything else — but because "as is, where is" and a lender's schedule scare off a meaningful share of buyers. Fewer offers is worth something.

Time. Six of fourteen have already reduced. Properties in this category sit longer, and sitting produces reductions. Patience is the edge more often than cleverness is.

Terms, not price. With an estate, a closing date built around where probate actually stands can be worth more to the seller than a few thousand dollars, and that is negotiating room a prepared buyer can use.

What this means if you are looking

The practical consequence of the 7% figure is that searching for these yourself does not work, and no amount of persistence fixes it. The information that identifies the other 93% is not published anywhere you can reach. It is not a matter of looking harder or knowing the right website.

What I do is run the search across all eight Durham municipalities, on both the public remarks and the REALTOR-only fields, and keep a running list. I publish a summary of the public portion free every month — counts, price ranges, municipalities, no addresses. That is the report this post accompanies.

Registered subscribers get the addresses and listing details for the publicly disclosed properties. The full inventory, including everything identified through REALTOR-only information, goes to clients under a signed representation agreement, because that is the point at which I am permitted to disclose what I know about a property to the person I am acting for.

There is no cost to the monthly list and no obligation attached to it. If it turns out this market does not suit you — and for plenty of buyers it does not — that is a useful thing to learn from a free email rather than from three months of disappointing showings.

Get the free monthly list → Durham Power of Sale & Estate Lists

Figures verified against the MLS® system on October 1, 2026 and refreshed monthly. Counts are properties on the market on that date, excluding those already sold conditionally. Counts cover Durham Region only. This is general information, not legal advice. Not intended to solicit buyers or sellers currently under contract.

Carmine Cupelli, Broker, SRS, CLHM, ABR, SRES, RENE — The Carmine Cupelli Team, RE/MAX Hallmark First Group Realty Ltd., Brokerage · 647-584-7782

Most buyers meet the lender's schedule for the first time about four hours before their offer is due. Their agent forwards a PDF, they skim it, it is written in a register that does not invite close reading, and they sign.

It is worth reading properly, and it is worth reading before you are under time pressure, because the schedule is not a formality attached to the standard agreement. In almost every case it is expressly stated to take priority over the standard agreement. Where the two conflict, the schedule wins.

Here is what is usually in it.

1. Nearly every representation and warranty is removed

The standard OREA agreement contains a set of seller warranties that most buyers never think about because they are almost never an issue. That the chattels will be in working order on completion. That the seller has disclosed known latent defects. That there is no outstanding work order. That the property complies with zoning.

A lender's schedule typically strikes all of it. The lender has never lived in the house, has likely never been inside it, and is not prepared to warrant anything about it. The property is sold "as is, where is."

What this means in practice: the inspection is not a negotiating tactic here, it is the entire protection. In a normal transaction a buyer who finds a problem after closing has some recourse. Under a lender's schedule, generally, they do not.

What to do: treat the inspection condition as non-negotiable, and use an inspector who has done these before. Budget for what you cannot see. If the property has been vacant through a winter, get the plumbing looked at specifically — that is where the expensive surprises live.

2. No warranty of vacant possession

This one catches people badly and it is the one I would most want a buyer to understand.

The lender will usually not warrant that the property will be empty on closing. Most power of sale properties are vacant. Some are not.

If someone is living there under a tenancy, Ontario's Residential Tenancies Act protections generally stay with that tenant regardless of who owns the property. Buying the building does not end the tenancy. A power of sale does not end the tenancy. If you were planning to move in yourself, or planning to renovate and resell, an occupied property is a materially different purchase from the one you think you are making, and the timeline may not be within your control at all.

What to do: establish occupancy status before you write, not after. Ask directly. If there is an occupant, get your lawyer involved on the tenancy question specifically, and understand that "the lender will deal with it before closing" is not something you should accept without it being written down.

3. Deposit and deadline terms tighten

Schedules commonly require a larger deposit, require it faster, and make the deadlines strict — meaning a missed deadline is a breach rather than something to be sorted out between agents on the day.

What to do: have the deposit liquid and available before you write. Not "available in a few days." Available.

4. The lender's ability to walk is wider than yours

Many schedules give the lender the right to terminate in circumstances a normal seller could not — most commonly if the borrower redeems the mortgage.

This deserves its own paragraph because it surprises people. In Ontario a borrower retains the right to redeem — to pay the arrears and costs and stop the sale — and that right does not evaporate the moment your offer is accepted. It is possible to have a firm deal, be planning your move, and have the sale cancelled because the homeowner found the money. Your deposit comes back. Your inspection fee, your legal fees to that point, and the two months you spent not looking at other houses do not.

It is not common. It is also not rare enough to ignore.

What to do: know it can happen and do not stop watching the market entirely between acceptance and closing.

5. Title and survey obligations shift toward you

The lender will typically give you less than a normal seller would: no survey, no undertaking to clear certain title issues, sometimes limits on what you can object to and how long you have to object.

What to do: get a real estate lawyer on the file early — before the offer, not after — and budget for title insurance. This is one of the places where trying to save a few hundred dollars is a genuinely bad trade.

The honest summary

None of this makes power of sale properties a bad purchase. Thousands of them change hands in Ontario every year without incident, they finance normally in most cases, and buyers who understand the terms do well in this market.

What it does mean is that the risk allocation is different. In a standard transaction, a meaningful share of the "what if something is wrong" risk sits with the seller. Under a lender's schedule, most of it has been moved to you. The price should reflect that, and your preparation certainly should.

Read the schedule before you write the offer. Have your lawyer read it too. If the listing agent will not send it in advance, that itself is information.

The full guide, including the five-step offer sequence → Buying a Power of Sale

This is general information about how these schedules commonly work in Ontario, not legal advice, and not a description of any particular lender's document. Every schedule is different and every file has its own facts. Have a real estate lawyer review the actual documents before you make an offer.

Carmine Cupelli, Broker, SRS, CLHM, ABR, SRES, RENE — RE/MAX Hallmark First Group Realty Ltd., Brokerage · 647-584-7782

If you are reading this because you have missed mortgage payments, the most useful thing I can tell you first is that the process is slower than it feels, and that you often have more time than the letters suggest.

That is not reassurance for its own sake. It is a factual point about how the timeline works in Ontario, and knowing it changes what you are able to do.

The timeline

Ontario lenders enforce mortgages mainly through power of sale, under the Mortgages Act. It is not the same thing as foreclosure, and the difference matters: in a power of sale the lender sells the property but never takes ownership of it. Foreclosure — where the lender takes title outright — is a separate, court-supervised process and it is comparatively rare here.

The statutory sequence looks roughly like this:

Default. You miss payments, or otherwise breach the mortgage terms.

Fifteen days. The lender generally cannot issue a Notice of Sale until the default has continued for at least fifteen days.

In practice, it depends on who holds your mortgage. Major banks usually spend the first month or two sending letters and making calls before starting the formal process. Private and non-traditional lenders often move much sooner, sometimes right at the fifteen-day mark. Neither is a guarantee. The law allows the faster route, so treat the fifteen days as the real deadline, not the bank's usual habits.

The Notice of Sale. A formal document stating the amount in arrears and what must be paid to bring the mortgage back into good standing. Receiving one is serious. It is not the sale.

Thirty-five days, usually more. The sale generally cannot proceed for at least thirty-five days after the notice is given — forty in some circumstances, including where the property is owner-occupied and the notice was sent by mail. This window is commonly called the redemption period.

Listing and sale. Only after that does the lender list the property, and then it has to actually sell — which takes as long as selling a house takes.

Add it up and the realistic distance between a first missed payment and a completed sale is usually months, not weeks. During the redemption period the Act also restricts the lender from pursuing other remedies without court approval.

I am not telling you this so you will relax. I am telling you because people in this situation often believe they have days, freeze, and lose the window in which their options are widest. Your options are best at the beginning and they narrow steadily. What you do in the first two weeks matters more than what you do in the last two.

What you can generally do

Five things. Which of them are actually open to you depends on facts I do not know — your equity, your income, your lender, and how far along this has gone.

1. Bring the arrears current. The right to redeem — to pay what is owed plus the lender's costs and bring the mortgage back into good standing — continues through the redemption period. If the shortfall is bridgeable from savings, family, or a lump sum you have coming, this is the cleanest outcome. Note that the number is not just the missed payments; it includes the legal and administrative costs the lender has incurred, and those grow the longer this runs.

2. Negotiate with your lender. Lenders do not want your house. Realizing on a property is slow, expensive, and generates complaints. Many will consider a repayment arrangement that spreads the arrears across future payments, a temporary interest-only period, or a term extension. This is a genuine option and it is underused, largely because people in arrears stop opening the mail and stop answering the phone. Call them before they call you. Ask specifically what arrangements they can offer.

3. Refinance. Replacing the existing mortgage with a new one, sometimes with a different type of lender, pays out the arrears and resets the clock. Whether it is available depends on equity and on how far the default has progressed — and refinancing while a notice is outstanding is harder and more expensive than refinancing before one is issued. Which is the argument for moving early. Speak to a mortgage broker who handles these files rather than only your existing lender.

4. Sell it yourself. If the arrears are not bridgeable and refinancing is not available, selling on your own terms is usually the option that protects the most. You control the listing, the price, the timing, and the presentation. You are selling a house rather than having a lender sell a distressed asset. And the surplus — whatever remains after the mortgage, the costs, and any subsequent encumbrances are paid — belongs to you.

That last point is worth stating plainly because a lot of people assume that once a power of sale starts they walk away with nothing. That is not how it works. The lender is entitled to what it is owed plus its costs, and no more. If there is equity, it is yours. Selling before the process runs its course generally preserves more of it, because it avoids the accumulating legal costs and it avoids selling into the "as is, where is" discount that lender-run sales attract.

5. Insolvency advice. If the mortgage is one problem among several, a Licensed Insolvency Trustee can explain options a REALTOR cannot — consumer proposals and bankruptcy among them. This is specialist territory and it is free to have the first conversation. If your debts are broader than this house, start there rather than here.

What I can and cannot do

I am a real estate broker. I can tell you what your property is realistically worth today, what a sale would likely net after costs, and how long it would take. I can list and sell it if that is the road you choose. I can point you to a real estate lawyer, a mortgage broker, or a Licensed Insolvency Trustee, and I would rather send you to the right one early than be the only person you talk to.

I cannot give legal advice, negotiate with your lender on your behalf, or tell you that a power of sale can be stopped. Whether it can depends on facts and on your lender, and anyone who promises otherwise before knowing your situation is not being straight with you.

What a conversation with me costs is nothing, and it commits you to nothing. It is not shared with your lender. If the answer is that you should be talking to a lawyer or a trustee instead, I will tell you that and you will have lost half an hour.

The one thing worth doing tonight

Open the letters. All of them, including the ones you have been avoiding. Find the date on the most recent one and the number it is asking for.

You cannot evaluate any of the five options without those two facts, and almost everybody in this situation is working from a worst-case guess rather than the actual figures. The real numbers are frequently better than the imagined ones. When they are not, at least you know what you are dealing with, and you can start making decisions instead of bracing.

The full timeline and all five options, laid out step by step → Facing a Power of Sale

Or call or text me directly at 647-584-7782. Nothing you tell me goes to your lender.

This is general information about the Ontario process, not legal or financial advice, and not a description of your particular mortgage. Timelines and rights depend on your mortgage documents and your circumstances. Speak to a real estate lawyer about your specific situation.

Carmine Cupelli, Broker, SRS, CLHM, ABR, SRES, RENE — RE/MAX Hallmark First Group Realty Ltd., Brokerage · 647-584-7782

Most executors are not professionals. They are somebody's daughter or son or brother, they agreed to this years ago without thinking hard about it, and now there is a house, a set of keys, and a strong sense that something ought to be happening.

Here is a sensible order of operations for the first month. Not everything on it is urgent — but the first two items genuinely are, and they are the two most commonly missed.

Week one

1. Call the insurer. Today, if you can.

This is the single most important item on this page and it is the one that gets overlooked, because insurance is invisible until it is not.

Most home insurance policies restrict coverage on a property once it becomes vacant, after a period that varies by insurer and by policy. A house that is technically uninsured when a pipe lets go in February is a catastrophe for an estate, and it is the kind of loss an executor can be held personally responsible for having failed to prevent.

Tell the insurer that the owner has died and explain the actual occupancy. Ask whether a vacancy permit, endorsement or another policy change is needed, which inspections and precautions are required — regular visits, heat maintained at a minimum temperature, sometimes the water shut off — and when coverage restrictions apply. Request the instructions in writing and keep records of compliance.

2. Secure the property.

For a vacant property, arrange appropriate security and confirm who has access — you will not know who has keys: cleaners, neighbours, adult children, a caregiver. For a tenanted or otherwise occupied property, obtain advice before changing locks, removing belongings or restricting access.

Then, in no particular order: make sure the heat stays on, redirect the mail, deal with anything perishable, check that the property does not look conspicuously empty from the street, and if there are valuables or documents, remove them and record what you took. Take photographs of every room before anything is moved. That photo set will be worth having later, both for insurance and for the conversation with beneficiaries about what was in the house.

3. Find the will and confirm you are actually the executor.

Sounds obvious. It is surprisingly often unclear — there may be more than one document, an older will, or a codicil. Confirm which is the operative one, and confirm whether you are acting alone or jointly with someone else. If jointly, you generally cannot make unilateral decisions about the property, and finding that out now is much better than finding it out after you have signed a listing.

4. Do not distribute anything.

Not the contents of the house, not money, not the car, not sentimental items, however reasonable the request. Beneficiaries will ask, sometimes within days, and it will feel unkind to refuse.

Distributing before the estate's debts are known can expose you personally. If the estate turns out to owe more than it holds, an executor who has already handed out assets may have to make up the difference. This is one of the real risks of the job and it is worth being firm about it early, once, kindly, rather than relitigating it repeatedly.

Week two

5. Get a lawyer.

An estates lawyer, not a generalist. Ask what probate will require here, how long your local court is currently taking, and whether this estate might qualify for a Small Estate Certificate — a simplified process available in Ontario for estates with a gross value of $150,000 or less under Rule 74.1.

Ask how the lawyer's retainer and fees will be paid and what happens if the estate has limited cash. Do not assume that every expense you incur personally will automatically be reimbursed. Executors sometimes try to save the estate money by doing this themselves and it is nearly always a false economy.

6. Get a date-of-death valuation of the property.

You need a defensible number for what the property was worth on the date the owner died. This is not the same as an asking price, and it is not a favour you should ask of an agent in exchange for the listing.

You need it for the estate accounting, for the probate application, and — this is the part executors underestimate — for your own protection. If the house eventually sells for less than a beneficiary thinks it should have, a documented, contemporaneous valuation is what stands between you and that argument.

Ask the lawyer and the estate's accountant what historic valuation evidence they require. I can discuss the available market information and help with current sale positioning; a designated appraiser may be appropriate for the estate's historic valuation.

7. Understand what the estate will owe.

Ontario charges Estate Administration Tax on the value of the estate: nothing on the first $50,000, and $15 for each $1,000 or part of $1,000 above that. For an estate valued at exactly $900,000 for this purpose, the tax is $12,750. The relevant estate value and deductions need to be confirmed with your lawyer. Ontario: calculating the Estate Administration Tax.

It is paid by the estate, not by you, and not by the buyer. But it affects how much cash the estate needs to have available and when, and that occasionally affects timing decisions about the house. Your lawyer and the estate's accountant should walk you through the whole picture — including income tax, which is separate. If the property was a rental, read Selling an inherited rental property in Ontario.

Weeks three and four

8. Decide about the contents before you decide about the house.

Almost every estate property sale stalls on contents rather than on the real estate. Forty years of accumulation, several beneficiaries with different attachments to it, and nobody wanting to be the one who threw out the wrong thing.

Give beneficiaries a defined window to identify what they want, in writing, with a date. Then deal with the rest — estate sale, auction, donation, clearance company, in that order of preference depending on what is actually there. Photograph anything of value before it leaves.

Start this early. It takes longer than anyone expects and the house cannot be prepared for sale until it is done.

9. Confirm the legal sale route before you sign.

Current Ontario guidance is to obtain the Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee (probate) before entering into an Agreement of Purchase and Sale for the deceased's property. That is the safest default. Ontario: apply for probate of an estate.

It is not the only route. In some circumstances, with the estate lawyer's approval and the right terms in the agreement — for example, a condition or closing date tied to the certificate being issued — a sale can be negotiated while probate is still pending. Done properly, that can let the estate meet a good market and shorten the time it carries the property's costs. Done without those terms, it can leave the estate unable to close on time.

Before you sign a listing agreement or accept an offer, ask the estate lawyer to confirm your authority to act, the title requirements and whether a pre-probate sale suits this estate. Use the waiting period to gather property records, obtain valuations and assess preparation options.

10. Compare preparation costs before renovating.

The instinct is to fix the house up. Start instead with safety, cleanliness and the property's actual condition, then compare a limited preparation budget with selling as it is. Buyers of estate properties often expect original condition, and a partial renovation done at estate expense can delay the sale and give beneficiaries something new to disagree about.

Often worth doing: a deep clean, clearing the contents, tidying the front, fixing anything that is a safety issue, and making sure the property is well lit for photographs. Larger work — kitchens, bathrooms, flooring — needs a case-specific estimate of cost, delay and likely buyer response. Keep the decision and the supporting estimates in the estate's records.

What comes after

With valuations, property records and the legal route clarified, the next step is to agree on the marketing, occupancy and closing plan. Some preparation work can happen in parallel; the estate lawyer should confirm when commitments may be made.

If the property is in Durham Region or a nearby GTA community and you want to talk it through, there is no cost to the conversation and it does not commit you to anything.

Official resources

• Administering estates — Government of Ontario overview of an estate trustee's duties
• Apply for probate of an estate — Government of Ontario
• Calculating the Estate Administration Tax — Government of Ontario
• Doing taxes for someone who died — Canada Revenue Agency
• Law Society Referral Service — to find an Ontario estates lawyer
• Landlord and Tenant Board — if the property is tenanted

The full executor's checklist, in order → Selling an Estate Property

Or call or text me at 647-584-7782.

This is general information for Ontario executors, not legal, tax or accounting advice. Every estate is different, and an executor's duties are personal and enforceable. Retain an estates lawyer and, where the estate is not straightforward, an accountant.

Updated October 6, 2026.

Carmine Cupelli, Broker, SRS, CLHM, ABR, SRES, RENE — RE/MAX Hallmark First Group Realty Ltd., Brokerage · 647-584-7782