A real estate agent who already speaks the court's language.
Full probate, IAEA authority, a living trust, or a family agreement between siblings — each has its own rules for how a home can be sold. I handle the real estate side while your attorney focuses on the legal aspects of the transaction.
What We Sort Out First
Before a single photo gets taken, there are a few things worth sorting out. Your attorney will guide you through the legal requirements — here's what I focus on:
Keeping Everyone in the Loop
Every required party stays informed from our very first conversation.
Assessing Condition & Occupancy
Is the home vacant, still occupied by a family member, or full of decades of belongings that need to be cleared first?
Factoring in Timeline Pressure
Creditor claim periods, tax deadlines, or a beneficiary who needs funds — these shape how we price and market the home.
The TimelineA typical California probate sale, stage by stage.
Every estate is different, and a good probate attorney is essential — but this is roughly the shape of the timeline, and where a real estate agent's work fits into it.
01
Petition & LettersWeeks 1-8
The court appoints an executor or administrator and issues Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration. Nothing can be listed for sale until this happens.
02
Property Prepared & ListedOnce letters issue
We walk the home together, decide what’s worth doing before photos go up, and price it with the eventual court process in mind.
03
Offer AcceptedFull authority vs. iaea
If the estate has full authority under the Independent Administration of Estates Act, we can often proceed much like a standard sale, with a Notice of Proposed Action to beneficiaries. Otherwise, the accepted offer becomes the opening bid for court confirmation, increased by 5% plus $500 — for example, an accepted offer of $1,250,000 becomes an opening overbid of $1,313,000 in court.
04
Court Confirmation HearingIf required
Other buyers can appear at the hearing and overbid, starting from that opening bid amount. The judge sets each subsequent overbid increment at his own discretion. I prepare sellers for this so it isn’t a surprise, and represent the listing through the hearing.
05
Close & DistributionClose of Escrow
Once escrow closes, expenses are paid, and what remains is distributed to the beneficiaries per the will, trust, or intestate succession — on the attorney’s guidance.
This is a general overview, not legal advice — every estate has its own facts, and an estate or probate attorney guides the legal steps.
Experience the Best in Real Estate Services
- A customized marketing plan built around your property and situation — not a one-size-fits-all template
- Full online exposure — professional photography, virtual tours, and placement across the sites buyers actually use
- Marketing aimed at the buyers most likely to actually close, whether that's a family, a flipper, or a developer
- Re-keying coordinated from day one, so access stays secure and organized
- Cleanout and cleanup supervised for you — haulers, cleaners, painters, carpet installers, and estate liquidators, so you're not managing five contractors yourself
- Vetted vendor referrals for repairs and staging, especially useful when heirs live out of state or out of the country
- Disclosures handled correctly for an estate sale, where standard rules can work differently
- If court confirmation applies — active marketing and showings right up to the court date, plus court appearances alongside your attorney at the overbid hearing
- Regular, plain-language updates to every heir, beneficiary, trustee, executor, or administrator, from listing to close
Most inherited homes need something. That's normal, not a problem.
Homes that have been owned by the same family for decades are often not in "list-ready" shape — original kitchens, deferred maintenance, or simply years of belongings to sort through. None of that disqualifies a home from selling well.
Part of my job is giving you an honest read on what's actually worth fixing before listing versus what buyers will happily take on themselves — especially given how much investor and contractor demand exists for San Francisco properties in any condition.
- List as-is for owner-occupant buyers
- Light cosmetic work to widen the buyer pool
- Off-market to investors/developers, when speed matters most
- Coordinated sale alongside a 1031 exchange, if beneficiaries are reinvesting
In most cases, yes. The home cannot be listed until the court has appointed an executor or administrator and issued Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration, which usually takes around four to eight weeks. Once those letters are in hand, the property can be prepared, listed, and sold while the rest of the estate administration continues in the background. The creditor claim period, for example, typically runs in parallel with marketing the home rather than delaying it.
The sale itself moves at roughly the speed of a normal listing once letters have been issued, but the surrounding estate usually takes nine to eighteen months from petition to final distribution, and sometimes longer. The biggest variables are whether the court granted full authority under the Independent Administration of Estates Act, whether a court confirmation hearing is required, how many beneficiaries are involved, and whether anyone contests the process.
The Independent Administration of Estates Act lets the court grant an executor or administrator authority to handle most estate matters without returning to court for each one. With full authority, a home can be sold much like any other listing, after giving beneficiaries fifteen days’ Notice of Proposed Action, which they have the right to object to. With limited authority, or none at all, the sale generally has to be confirmed by the court at a hearing.
When a sale requires court confirmation, the accepted offer becomes the opening bid at a hearing where other buyers can appear and bid higher in open court. The opening bid is the accepted offer plus five percent of that amount plus five hundred dollars — so an accepted offer of $1,250,000 opens at $1,313,000. Each subsequent increment is set at the judge’s discretion. Because of this, the closing date is not truly settled until the hearing has happened, and buyers need to understand that going in.
The estate’s real property is appraised by a probate referee, a court-appointed appraiser who is not the real estate agent, as of the date of death. That appraisal becomes an important reference point for the court and for tax purposes. The eventual list price is set separately, based on current market conditions and comparable sales, and courts generally expect the sale price to bear a reasonable relationship to the appraised value.
Usually far less than people expect, and sometimes none. Federal tax law generally resets the property’s cost basis to its fair market value on the date of death, which is known as a step-up in basis. If the home was worth $1.4 million at the date of death and sells for $1.42 million a year later, the taxable gain is roughly $20,000 rather than decades of appreciation. California’s community property rules can be more generous still for a surviving spouse. A CPA should confirm how this applies to a particular estate.
Rarely. Homes held by the same family for decades often have original kitchens, deferred maintenance, or years of belongings still inside, and none of that prevents a good sale. There is real investor and contractor demand for San Francisco properties in any condition. The useful conversation is which of three paths fits: listing as-is, doing light cosmetic work to widen the buyer pool, or going off-market to investors when speed matters most.
This is common, and it is usually a communication problem before it is a legal one. Every beneficiary should receive the same information, in writing, at the same time — not just whoever is serving as executor. Where a genuine disagreement remains about whether or when to sell, that is a question for the estate attorney, and sometimes for the court, rather than something the listing agent can resolve.
Yes, and usually simpler. A home held in a properly funded living trust can generally be sold by the trustee without probate and without court confirmation, which removes the overbid process and much of the timeline. The trustee still has a duty to the beneficiaries to obtain fair value and to keep them informed, so the documentation and communication side of the work remains much the same.
For anything moving through the court, yes. The attorney handles the petition, the filings, the deadlines, and the legal steps of administering the estate. The agent handles the property: condition, pricing, preparation, marketing, negotiation, and, where required, appearing at the confirmation hearing alongside the attorney. The two roles work in parallel and neither substitutes for the other.
This is a general overview, not legal or tax advice — every estate has its own facts, and a California probate attorney should guide the legal steps.