Just Named Executor of an Iowa Estate? Here's the Real Estate Playbook, From an SRES®

Why the house is in the estate at all

Iowa does not recognize transfer-on-death deeds. That means most Iowa real estate owned individually passes through the estate regardless of other planning — even when bank accounts, retirement funds, and life insurance all transferred automatically. If you're wondering why everything else settled itself and the house didn't, that's why. It isn't a planning failure. It's how Iowa works, and it's why the house is now your responsibility as executor or personal representative.

Your real estate checklist, in order

1. Secure the property this week. Locks, utilities at maintenance levels, regular walk-throughs (or someone local doing them for you). As executor, preserving the estate's assets is your job from day one — before any court paperwork is finished.
2. Find the homeowner's insurance policy and call about vacancy. This is the most expensive thing executors skip. Details below.
3. Don't sign a listing agreement yet. You generally need your court-issued authority documents (Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration) before you can validly sign one. Prep work can start immediately; the signature waits. I sequence around this so no time is lost.
4. Get a date-of-death valuation. The estate's accounting and the heirs' tax basis both depend on what the home was worth when your parent or relative died. I provide this as a matter of course; your attorney and CPA use it from there.
5. Decide as-is vs. prep — with numbers, not opinions. Some estate homes return $15K on $4K of paint and cleanup. Others should sell exactly as they sit. I give you a short written recommendation either way, so you can show heirs the reasoning instead of defending a gut call.
6. Let the sale run on the attorney's timeline. I coordinate directly with the estate's probate attorney on listing timing, notice requirements, and closing — so you aren't relaying messages between professionals.

The vacant-home insurance problem (CPCU®)

Here's the part of the job nobody briefed you on: once the home is unoccupied, the existing homeowner's policy often stops covering the losses most likely to happen to it. Many policies sharply restrict or exclude coverage — vandalism, theft, water damage — after the home sits vacant for 30 or 60 days. An inherited home is almost always vacant, and probate almost always runs longer than 60 days.

For the estate, an uncovered loss isn't an inconvenience — it comes straight out of what the heirs receive, and the executor is the one who answers for it. My CPCU® background means I flag this exposure at our first conversation and give you the exact questions to ask the carrier or the estate's insurance agent. I don't quote or place coverage — that's the agent's job. Mine is making sure the call happens in week one, not after a frozen pipe.

Want the whole first month as a printable, day-by-day plan? Get the free Executor's First 30 Days in Iowa checklist — securing the property, the insurance call, documents, valuation, and the path-forward decision, in order.

How I make the executor's job smaller

• One point of contact. Cleanout crews, estate-sale companies, repair vendors, photographers — I hire, schedule, and supervise them in Des Moines. You approve decisions; I make the calls.
• Documentation heirs can see. Photo and video records at every stage, so siblings and beneficiaries watch the process instead of questioning it — and you have a paper trail for the estate file.
• Direct attorney coordination. I work with the estate's probate attorney on timing and requirements without routing everything through you.
• Fully remote-capable. Electronic signatures and video walkthroughs. Most executors I work with never have to make a second trip to Iowa.

Related situations

If you're administering the estate from outside Iowa, the remote playbook — vendor management, signing logistics, update cadence — is on the out-of-state heirs page. If a parent is still living and you're helping them sell rather than settling an estate, start with selling your parents' home in Des Moines instead — the authority and insurance questions are different.

For the full picture of how probate sales work in the Des Moines metro — court timeline, pricing, and what separates a probate-experienced agent from a general one — see the probate realtor guide.