01
One page, start to finish
Estate Executor's Duties During the Probate Process
The whole job as a single flowchart, in order, so you can see what is ahead of you instead of meeting it one surprise at a time.
You've inherited a Twin Cities house. Now what?
Three free documents that show you where to start, and what comes after. If it's a good fit, Keith will call you himself.
Send me the kit
Keith Hittner Licensed Minnesota real estate broker · Coldwell Banker Realty
Get the kit
About a minute, and it arrives by email.
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Your details are used to send you the kit and so Keith can follow up. We never sell them. Privacy policy.
What's in the kit
Three documents. One email.
These are the documents Keith hands the families he works with. They are not a brochure. They are the paperwork and the running order, written down, so you can see the whole job at once.
02
11 stages, 33 items
Probate Property Readiness Checklist
Everything that has to happen to a house before it can go on the market, stage by stage, plus the 14 kinds of local help families end up needing: locksmith, board-up, biohazard cleanup, estate sale company, junk removal, personal property appraiser, storage, vacant-property insurance.
03
The long read
Probate Real Estate and You: Avoiding the 7 Biggest Mistakes Made in Probate Real Estate
The seven mistakes families make most often with an inherited house, why each one happens, and what it tends to cost them.
All three arrive in one email as soon as you finish the form. There is no download link on this page, no login, and nothing to pay for.
Who you'll be talking to
Keith Hittner
I'm Keith Hittner. Forty years selling Minnesota homes. The hardest ones are the inherited ones.
The inherited ones are different and Keith says so plainly. There is a will, an attorney, a personal representative, siblings in three states, and a house that has not been empty in decades. Everybody has an opinion about what should happen to it, and the person holding the keys is usually the one who did not ask for the job.
Keith is a real estate professional who works with personal representatives. He is not an attorney, he does not give legal advice, and when a question turns out to be a legal one he says so and sends you back to the attorney handling the estate. That is the honest edge of what he can help with, and he would rather name it up front.
- Forty years
- Selling Minnesota homes. Long enough to have worked every kind of market and every kind of week a family can have.
- Licensed Minnesota real estate broker
- License #20617926, with Coldwell Banker Realty.
- Certified Probate Real Estate Specialist (CPRES)
- A designation he holds. Keith is not an attorney and does not give legal advice.
- On Twin Cities radio since 2009
- He has hosted a radio show in the Twin Cities since 2009.
- The seven-county metro
- Hennepin, Ramsey, Dakota, Anoka, Washington, Scott and Carver.
- The call comes from Keith
- Fill out the form and, if it's a good fit, Keith is the one who calls you himself.
What Keith handles
Between the funeral and the closing, there is a list.
Most of it is not real estate. It is a locksmith, a dumpster, a clean-out crew, somebody who knows what the dining room set is actually worth, and somebody else keeping track of all of them. Keith brings those people in and holds the schedule together.
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Clearing the house
Cleanout and trash-out crews, junk removal, and the hauling schedule that has to line up with them.
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Securing it
Locksmith and re-key, board-up where a house needs it, and an eye kept on a place nobody is living in.
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The personal property
Estate sale companies, personal property appraisers, donation pickups and storage, worked in the order the checklist lays out, so what your family wants to keep comes out first.
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Making it presentable
Deep clean, minor repairs, paint, the yard. Enough that the house shows like somebody cared for it. Not a renovation.
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Getting it seen
Photography, the listing itself, and the marketing around it.
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What it costs
Who pays for what depends on the estate, and it is a conversation on the phone rather than a promise on a web page. Keith will tell you plainly what he can and cannot do before anything starts.
You do not have to be in Minnesota for any of this to happen. Whether the estate needs you here for something else is a question for your attorney.
Questions
The things people ask first
Do I have to clear the house out first?
No. Keith looks at inherited houses the way they actually are: full, half-full, forty years of a life still in the closets. Clearing it out is one of the stages in the checklist, and it is work he coordinates. It is not something you have to finish before you are allowed to ask a question.
What if I live out of state?
That is common with an inherited house. The work at the house does not need you standing in it. Whether the estate itself needs you here for something is a legal question, and your attorney is the one to answer it.
What if the other heirs do not agree?
That is common, and it is not a dead end. Who has the authority to sell the house is settled by the estate and by the attorney handling it, not by Keith. He will talk with everyone who wants to be on the call, and he will not take a side inside a family.
Do I need an attorney?
Keith is not an attorney and will tell you so before you have to ask. Anything about authority, timing, creditors or taxes belongs with the attorney handling the estate. If you do not have one yet, say so on the call.
Is there anything to buy, or anything to schedule?
No. Fill out the form and the three documents are emailed to you. The kit costs nothing. If it's a good fit, Keith will call you himself, and there is no meeting to book on this page.
Are you going to push me to list the house?
Keith is a real estate broker. If the house does sell, he would like to be the one who sells it, and he would rather say that out loud than pretend otherwise. Plenty of people who ask for the kit are not selling this year, or at all. They get the documents the same as everybody else.
Where does Keith work?
The seven-county Twin Cities metro: Hennepin, Ramsey, Dakota, Anoka, Washington, Scott and Carver. If the house sits outside that, call and ask. You will get a straight answer either way.
Anything not answered here is a good thing to ask Keith on the phone.
Take the memories with you. I'll take care of the rest.
Keith Hittner
The Minnesota Inherited Property Kit is three documents, sent by email. If it's a good fit, Keith will call you himself. That is the whole of what this page is offering.
Send me the kitOr call (651) 333-6608