The family who inherited the house is best served by listing the house publicly and getting the best possible offer for the home in as-is condition. Don't expect a low price if the area has a shortage of homes on the market.

Do you have some special connection to the deceased persons children? If not I can't see how anyone would give a stranger a great deal on their mom or dad's house. They many not want the house but I'll bet they want the money from the sale of the house.

Your question isn't worth answering.

This situation doesn’t sound any different from any other real estate purchase. I imagine the heirs will want to maximize their gain, of course, by working everything in their favor as best they can.

If you don’t have much real estate experience, retaining a buyer’s agent might be a good plan. S/he can advise you on pricing by considering the usual factors (location, state of the local market, condition of the home, etc etc).

I'm not sure where I said we were looking to screw the kids. The attorney said she would show the house and we could make an offer.

We are looking into how to get the best price for all involved. We have been their neighbors for 35 years,

The only objective determination of what a property's fair market value is at any point in time, is that it is the value shown on a contract of sale signed by a seller and a buyer.

Comps are an indication. An appraisal is an indication. Neither of these two nor any other approach matters a whit if the outcome is a value that the buyer and the seller can't agree to move forward with.

Buyer expectations aren't always realistic, same for sellers. Often, it's both who have different pie in the sky expectations. These also can factor in to whether there is an ultimate agreement or not.

For comps, You should be able to find recent selling prices on your county’s property appraiser website. Keep in mind condition, updates and square footage.

Do you know for sure that this is going to be a private listing or is it going on the MLS? They may be going to set a price themselves. I don't know that I have ever seen an estate come up, even at auction, where there was not some sort of price guideline set. Sometimes when the survivors are not particularly interested in the property, they may set a price that will sell the house a little more quickly so they don't have to deal with maintaining an unoccupied house. But on the flip side, it could be sold without any continencies including waiving inspection, or they could possibly entertain only cash offers or something like that. And you may be competing with investors who have the resources (money and trades) to buy it, renovate it more efficiently and less expensively, and get it back on the market in short order. In any case the selling price is going to be set by a match between what the children are willing to sell it for and what someone is willing to pay for it.

The house has not been lived in since last spring. The auction is for the contents. We were told by the kids to contact their attorney about the house. I do not know if they have had it appraised or not. I hope so as that will give both parties an idea of it's value. We will see how this plays out.

I don't want to make any assumptions about your end of the transaction but the house will have to be appraised for a mortgage, if you are not paying cash.

"Your question isn't worth answering."

Yes, it is. None of us, and probably not the OP, have any idea what is running through those kids' minds. Some folks just want to be rid of thing ASAP and are willing to take a lower price just to get it done and over with. Probably especially if they're hard up for money. It's not theirs, it was their parents' -- it's all "free money" to them (minus taxes and attorney fees, of course) so yea....people want the CASH ASAP and if someone approaches them with a reasonable offer they'll take it rather than dealing with a realtor, possibly longer timeframe for a transaction than they'd like, etc.

Do a little homework and see what comps for similar homes are running in your area -- that should give you a reasonable idea of what to offer after considering updates that will be needed. The worst they can do is refuse the offer, but they may counteroffer and then the negotiation begins.

ETA: FWIW, I had a family member who inherited a house and sold it in the blink of an eye to a someone (or some company), who turned it into a rental property. Never hit the market. It seems like the last shovel of dirt barely hit the grave before that deal was done. She couldn't have cared less about maximizing value, she wanted the cold, hard C-A-S-H.

"I'm not sure where I said we were looking to screw the kids"

No one said you were. If I had a special connection to a childhood friend I spent a life time knowing and he or she expressed interest in the house after the funeral I would probably give them a generous concession on the price just because they were such a good friend to me or my parents. This is what some people do, and no one is getting screwed.

Market value is simple to do and only involves using Zillow or another websites to search for equivalent homes sold in the area. Houses on the market up for sale means nothing to determine market value, and only homes sold should be used to get present market value. Looking back more than 6 months at sold homes also mean little to present market value because markets change quickly. I prefer to use homes sold 3 months or less to determine comparable market value to get an indication of fair market value and has worked very well. It's all a realtor does to help you and involves no special skills, and is not an appraisal.

Even if the kids did a full appraisal last spring it would only be used for them for tax purposes and would NOT reflect the actual value as of today or 3 months from now. I always recommend to people with inherited property to have an appraisal done asap when they plan to sit on it longer than 6 months from the date of death. The IRS uses 6 months when applying the step up basis on value exemptions for inherited property, and after that all appreciation from Date of death is taxable to the new owner. Like I said above market values today are not the same as 6 months or a year ago.

"Your question isn't worth answering."

At the time it wasn't because the OP gave very limited information about the house with minor issues to use to deduct what the value should be. It doesn't work like that and to sit and try to say deduct X dollars for messed up trees and X dollars for having wall paper on the walls would of been a total waste of time!