An inherited house cannot be sold until somebody can prove they have the authority to sell it. That is not a formality invented by buyers. It is what the title company has to establish before it will insure the sale.
Texas gives families several routes, and which one fits depends on whether there was a will, whether there are debts, and how much everyone agrees.
Probate of a will as a muniment of title
If there is a will and the estate has no unpaid debts other than debts secured by liens on real estate, a court can admit the will as a muniment of title under Estates Code section 257.001. No executor is appointed and no administration is opened.
A person who takes property under a will admitted that way is entitled to treat the property as if the record of title were already in their name. For a clean estate with a house and no creditors, this is often the shortest road.
The affidavit of heirship, and its limits
When there is no will, families often record a sworn statement of the family history and who the heirs are. Under Estates Code section 203.001 that statement becomes prima facie evidence of the facts in it once it has been on record for five years in the county where the land sits.
Before five years it is still useful, and many title companies will accept one with supporting affidavits from people who knew the family. But the statute is explicit that an heirship affidavit does not affect the rights of an omitted heir or a creditor, so it is evidence rather than a shield.
The small estate affidavit
For an intestate estate, Estates Code section 205.001 allows a small estate affidavit when at least 30 days have passed since the death, no personal representative has been appointed or applied for, and the estate assets, excluding the homestead and exempt property, do not exceed seventy five thousand dollars. A judge has to approve it.
It is narrow, and it does not fit every estate with a house in it. Where it does fit, it is far lighter than an administration.
What the house costs while the family decides
Taxes, insurance and upkeep continue every month whether anybody lives there or not, and a vacant house is harder to insure than an occupied one. Your page adds the monthly figure up from the county record so the cost of waiting is a number rather than a feeling.
An empty house also attracts the problems empty houses attract: a pipe that bursts unnoticed, copper stolen, code letters from the city.
Selling with heirs in three cities
Nothing has to be cleared out first. Leave the furniture, the paperwork and the garage as they are. What stays behind becomes ours after closing.
Every heir sees the same page with the same arithmetic, which keeps a family from negotiating against itself. Signing can be done remotely, and the title company handles the estate paperwork it needs.
Written from the statutes themselves: Estates Code chapter 203, chapter 205, chapter 257. We are not lawyers and this is not advice about your own case.