Including the people already mailing you offers. Here is what you actually own, what the tax picture really looks like, why AB 2016 may spare you a full probate, and how to decide — on your timeline, not theirs.
Within a few weeks of a death being recorded, the mail starts. Postcards. Texts. Letters that use your mother's name and offer you cash “as-is, no repairs, close in seven days.” Some of it will arrive before the funeral programs are printed.
Those companies are not evil, but understand what they are: they are buying speed and certainty from you at a discount, and they are betting that grief and paperwork will make the discount feel reasonable. In South Los Angeles, where families have often held property for thirty and forty years, that discount can be a hundred thousand dollars or more.
You do not have to decide this month. Take the time.
People say “I inherited a house” when what they mean is one of several very different things, and each one has a different path.
Pull the deed before you assume. A grant deed and a preliminary title report cost almost nothing and will tell you exactly how title was held, whether there is a mortgage, and whether anyone has recorded a lien against the property. I will order those for you at no cost.
Effective April 1, 2025, California created a streamlined court procedure for a decedent's primary residence valued up to $750,000 — far above the old small-estate limit of roughly $184,500 that was useless for California real estate. A large share of South Los Angeles homes fall under that ceiling. Whether yours qualifies depends on the date of death, how title was held, what else is in the estate, and a formal valuation. Ask a probate attorney before you commit to a twelve-month administration. More on the probate process here.
Two very different taxes get confused constantly, and the confusion costs families real money.
Inherited property generally receives a stepped-up basis to its fair market value as of the date of death. If your mother bought the house for $42,000 in 1979 and it is worth $700,000 today, your basis is generally the $700,000 — not the $42,000. Sell near that value in the following months and the taxable gain is often close to zero. This is the single most misunderstood fact in inherited real estate, and fear of a phantom tax bill keeps families frozen for years.
Since Proposition 19 took effect in February 2021, the parent-to-child exclusion is much narrower. In broad terms the child must make the home their principal residence and file within the required window, and even then the exclusion is capped. If nobody is moving in, expect reassessment to current market value. A property carrying a 1980s assessed value can see its annual tax bill multiply.
That reassessment is what turns “we will just hold it and rent it out” into a slow bleed. Run the number first. Confirm both of these with a CPA — I am a broker, not a tax advisor — but know the questions to ask.
The hardest inherited-property situations I have seen were not legal. They were three siblings who each assumed something different and none of them said it out loud. One wants to sell. One wants to keep it for the kids. One is already living in it and has not paid anything toward the taxes in two years.
Get it on the table early. A partition action — where a court forces the sale and splits the proceeds — is the most expensive way to resolve a disagreement, and it usually ends relationships along with the ownership.
Every family that lost the house lost it the same way: slowly, politely, while everyone assumed someone else was handling it.
I am the guy who chose not to sell. My mother bought a building on Crenshaw Boulevard in 1995. She passed in 2015. I spent six years buying out a partner who had walked away from the property, and I am now building a 48-unit mixed-use development on that land instead of cashing out. The Los Angeles Times wrote about it in December 2024 under a headline about a family choosing to build rather than sell.
So I will never tell you that selling is automatically the right answer. But I will tell you the truth about what holding costs: the mortgage if there is one, the reassessed taxes, insurance on a vacant house — which is its own expensive problem — deferred maintenance on a fifty-year-old roof, and the very real possibility of a tax default sale if nobody is watching the bill.
Hold it because you ran the numbers and it works. Not because nobody wanted to make the decision.
And if the answer is that you should keep it, I will say that and go away. I have enough business. What I do not have is any interest in being another person who called your family the month after a funeral to get something.
Usually far less than people fear. Inherited property generally receives a stepped-up basis to its fair market value as of the date of death, so if the home was bought for $42,000 decades ago and is worth $700,000 today, the basis is generally the $700,000. Selling near that value shortly after often produces little or no taxable gain. Confirm your specific situation with a CPA — this is general information, not tax advice.
Probably, unless you move in. Since Proposition 19 took effect in February 2021, the parent-to-child exclusion generally requires the child to make the home their principal residence and file within the required window, and the exclusion is capped even then. If nobody is living there, expect reassessment to current market value, which on a long-held South LA home can multiply the annual bill. Model that number before deciding to hold and rent.
It depends on how title was held. If the property was in a living trust, the successor trustee can typically sell without probate. If title was joint tenancy or community property with right of survivorship, ownership generally passes automatically. If there is only a will, or nothing at all, probate is required. Separately, AB 2016, effective April 1, 2025, created a streamlined procedure for a decedent's primary residence valued up to $750,000, which covers a large share of South Los Angeles homes.
That is a real decision and it deserves actual math. Holding costs include the mortgage, reassessed property taxes under Proposition 19, vacant-home insurance, and deferred maintenance on aging housing stock — plus the risk of a tax default sale if nobody is watching the bill. Keep it because the numbers work, not because nobody wanted to make the call. I chose to develop my own family's Crenshaw property rather than sell it, so I will never tell you selling is automatically right.
Talk about it early and directly, because the alternative is worse. If co-owners cannot agree, any one of them can file a partition action asking a court to force the sale and divide the proceeds. It is the most expensive way to resolve the disagreement and it usually costs the relationship along with the house. Most of these situations resolve once someone puts real numbers in front of everyone.
Not before you know what the property is worth. Those buyers are purchasing speed and certainty from you at a discount, and the discount on a long-held South LA property is often six figures. Get a written valuation with named comparable sales first. Then, if speed genuinely matters more to your family than price, you can make that trade knowingly.
No. The deed pull, the preliminary title report, the written valuation, and an introduction to a probate attorney are all free and carry no obligation. I do not take referral fees on attorney introductions. If you decide to sell, we can talk about representation then.
See what it could sell for, rent for, or become — and what a transfer means for your family's property tax. One business day. No obligation.