Selling an inherited house
or a house held in trust.

Trust sale or probate? Check the deed first

The question is whether the house was actually retitled into the trust. Families set up a living trust, sign everything, and then never record a deed transferring the house into it. The trust exists; the house is not in it; probate is required anyway.

Pull the last recorded deed from the county recorder. If the grantee reads as the trust, you are a trust sale. If it reads as an individual name, you are likely headed for probate — or possibly the streamlined $750,000 primary residence petition, which is worth checking before anyone files a full case.

What slows trust sales down

Rarely the buyer. Usually one of these:

• Paperwork the title company needs — death certificate, Certification of Trust, the pages naming the successor trustee. Start gathering these before you talk to anyone about selling.
• Siblings in different places with different goals — one wants the money now, one wants to keep it, one is not answering. The trustee usually has authority to act, but a sale that blindsides a beneficiary tends to generate a dispute.
• Forty years of belongings — the emotional work nobody schedules. We buy with the contents in place, so this stops being a blocker.
• A house that has not been updated since the eighties — knob-and-tube, an original panel, a roof past its life, a kitchen that will not photograph. This is the fork in the road below.

The real decision: sell as-is or fix it first

An inherited Bay Area house is often worth a great deal and in rough shape at the same time. The honest answer depends on numbers specific to that house, and anyone who gives you a rule of thumb is guessing.

What we do is price both. A cash purchase as-is, contents included, closing on your date. And what the house would list for after a defined scope of work, with that scope priced by a licensed contractor and the carrying cost of the months it takes included honestly.

Sometimes fixing it wins by a wide margin and we say so. Sometimes the spread does not justify the months, the coordination, and the family friction — especially when the people deciding live in three states.

Two tax points worth knowing before you decide

Stepped-up basis. Inherited property generally resets to its date-of-death value for capital gains purposes, so the gain is usually measured from that figure rather than the original purchase price. The tax bill people brace for is often smaller than they expect.

Proposition 19. Since February 2021, inheriting a parent's house and keeping the low property tax basis is much harder. The exclusion broadly requires the child to make it their own primary residence, and there is a cap above which partial reassessment applies. If the plan is to rent it out or sell it, assume reassessment.

Both of these are general outlines, not advice on your situation. A CPA will settle it in one conversation and it is worth having that conversation before you sign anything.

Common questions

Does a house in a trust have to go through probate?

No. That is the point of the trust. The successor trustee holds title and can sell without a probate case, which is why trust sales usually move far faster than probate sales.

What does the title company need from a successor trustee?

Typically a certified death certificate, a Certification of Trust, and the trust document or the relevant pages showing your authority to sell. Getting these in hand early is the single best way to keep a trust sale from stalling.

Do beneficiaries have to agree to the sale?

The trustee generally has authority to sell without a vote, but the trustee also has a duty to the beneficiaries. In practice, a trustee who documents the process — including getting a real market opinion before accepting an off-market offer — is protecting themselves as much as the estate.

Will selling an inherited house trigger a big capital gains bill?

Often much less than people fear. Inherited property generally receives a stepped-up basis to its value at the date of death, so the taxable gain is measured from that value rather than from what your parents paid decades ago. Confirm the specifics with a CPA.

What happens to the property taxes if I keep it?

Since Proposition 19 took effect in February 2021, the parent-child exclusion from reassessment is much narrower. It broadly applies only where the child makes the home their own primary residence, and there is a value cap above which partial reassessment applies. For a house that will be a rental or sold, expect reassessment. Check your situation with the county assessor or a CPA.

Can you buy the house if the trust is still being administered?

Usually yes, once the successor trustee's authority is documented. We buy as-is, contents included, and close on the trustee's schedule.