3-2-1 Real Estate Ready: Inherited property and the decisions nobody prepares you for

This week's three insights from me, two quotes from others, one question to carry with you...

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I.

Inheriting a house is not really a real estate transaction. It's a family conversation that happens to involve real estate. Somebody wants to keep it. Somebody needs their share now. Somebody hasn't been able to walk through the front door yet. All three of those people are right, and none of them are talking about square footage.

II.

There's one thing about California law that surprises nearly every family I meet. It used to be that a child could inherit a parent's home and keep the parent's low property tax assessment, regardless of what they did with the house. That changed with Proposition 19. Now the break generally applies only if the child moves in and makes it their primary residence, and even then only up to a limit. Keep it as a rental, keep it as a second home, keep it empty while everyone decides, and it gets reassessed at today's market value. Families discover this months in, after the emotional decision is already made. The tax picture should be part of the conversation from the beginning, not a consequence you find out about later.

III.

So here's what I'd tell you if we were sitting at your kitchen table. Get the estate attorney and the CPA involved early, before anyone commits to anything out loud. Get the house valued as of the date of death, because that number matters for capital gains later and it gets harder to establish as time passes. Decide what you're actually optimizing for, whether that's keeping the family home, getting everyone paid fairly, or simply getting through this without a rift, because those goals point different directions. Talk about money and memory separately. And give yourselves permission to move slowly. There is real cost in waiting, and I've written about that before. But this is the one situation where I've never seen anyone regret taking an extra month to get it right.

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"Grief is the price we pay for love."

— Colin Murray Parkes

"Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry."

— James 1:19

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ONE QUESTION TO CARRY WITH YOU:

Are you keeping the house, or keeping what happened in it?

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Thanks for reading,

Samuel Vera, REALTOR

DRE #01911575

Rapisarda Real Estate

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