The three clocks
Each one is set by someone outside the family. The rest of the sale fits around them.
The court appointment
Queens County Surrogate's Court issues letters testamentary or letters of administration. Until then nobody can sign a listing or a contract for the estate. The court sets its own pace, so this is the one clock nobody can predict for you. What can start before letters.
The estate tax lien release
Average processing for a complete ET-117 application, plus seven to ten business days of mailing, per the Tax Department. It runs alongside the sale. More on the lien release.
The co-op board
Under Local Law 58 of 2026, 15 days to say whether a package is complete and 45 days to decide, with one 14-day extension, for applications from July 28, 2026. Starts after the contract. What the board asks for.
What runs alongside
- The date-of-death value letter, which the CPA needs anyway.
- Clearing the home and deciding what, if anything, to fix.
- Questions to the managing agent, for a co-op.
- Pricing and the sale plan, ready to sign the day letters issue.
- Showings and offers, once the listing is signed.
What the record says about pace
No public record shows how long each Bayside estate sale took from the date of death; ACRIS records the transfer, not the start. The closest broad figure on record is Empathy's 2023 Cost of Dying report, in which families took an average of 15 months to settle all house-related arrangements. That is everything to do with the house, not strictly death to sale, so treat it as a ceiling on the ordinary case rather than a forecast.
How long it takes to sell an inherited home comes down to the executor's own decisions more than anything else: when the petition is filed, when the lien release goes in, and how long the home sits before it is cleared.
Start here
Bayside only: 11360, 11361 and 11364. Text, call or email. The first conversation and the value letter cost nothing.
Helpful to have ready
- The property address, and the building and apartment for a co-op
- The date of death
- Whether the court has issued letters yet
- Your role: executor, administrator, heir, CPA or attorney
At the first real conversation you receive New York's required agency disclosure and housing discrimination disclosure forms.
Sources
- Estate tax lien release: NYS Department of Taxation and Finance, Release of estate tax lien.
- Co-op board deadlines: NYC Local Law 58 of 2026 (Int. 1120-B), as summarized by Pryor Cashman and Armstrong Lefkowitz Sklaw.
- Empathy, The Cost of Dying report (2023): families took an average of 15 months to settle all house-related arrangements.