Executor duties

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Washington State
My mother left a will stating that all personal assets, land, cash, personal items are to be equally shared between her children. My sister was named executor of the will. My sister hired an attorney to help her settle my mothers estate.
We, my brother and I, have been told that as executor my sister has all rights on how all items are disposed of. We have also been told that all items will be sold to go into an account to be split evenly amongst us and that if we wish to have any personal items we must pay for them at a reduced cost. We have also been told that the executor will distribute any valuable assets to whom she believes should have them or will be sold without consent from either sibling.
We have also been told that if we wish to live in the house we are to all inherit equally we will need to pay rent until said house can be sold.

The executor has also demanded return of any assets/items that my mother has given prior to her death due to what she states "our mother was not sane at the time of gifting." I have spoken to her attorney and have been told that as executor my sister has all rights to decide how the estate should be disposed of when and if any assests will be discharged, and how the cash assets can be spent, without any consent from either sibling.

My father has previously passed and my mother was debt free. We are currently in probate and it should be out by the end of October. I guess my question is how much power does an executor have when the will is so simple?

If all the siblings are reasonable and get along, this can be a very easy process. If there is bickering and infighting, then someone has to be the mediator and make the decisions.

I created lists of everything with their values, and had my siblings rank/weigh each item 1-5 as to whether the REALLY wanted that item, or to just get rid of it and throw it away if need be. Put everything on a spreadsheet, and then started assigning each item out, balancing desire and value. A couple phone calls to resolve/clarify some things and pretty much done.

Have used this process three times, and since the respective family members groups all got along, it's worked fine. After the fact, everyone is understanding and happy with the distribution. One person needs to be in charge and make the decisions, but that doesn't mean that the other siblings can't make their desires known.

Good luck.

Thank you Kiawah for your reply. Your suggestion was one that I too presented on how we could settle the personal items concern. Since the will stipulates that we all inherit equally then we could each list what we would like to have and if for some reason we all were to chose the same item then we could "draw straws" sort of strategy. That unfortunately was vetoed by the executor, everything must be sold.

My question on how much power an executor has is based off of the decisions currently being made by the executor on distribution of personal items, cash assets, and land dealings. On one hand you have a will pretty much laid out in simple terms, “all inherit equally”, and on the other you have the executor making decisions that don’t make sense and at times become biased based on what or who is involved, there is no consistency or explanation as to why some decisions are being made.

If the executor truly is the last voice on all decisions then it would seem to me that an executor should be consistent with all dealings. Perhaps I am wrong in my idealism, which is why I posted my question. If an executor can pretty much do what they wish then “it is what it is”.

But again thank you for your reply Kiawah