Selling an inherited house in San Diego

• Condition requiredNone — furniture, clothing and garage contents can stay
• Works with probateYes, including sales that need court confirmation
• Multiple heirsFine — we close once whoever holds authority signs
• Out-of-state sellersEverything can be handled remotely with a mobile notary
• Typical timeline7–21 days once authority to sell is in place

The three things that actually slow an inherited sale down

It is rarely the house. It is authority, agreement and contents. Authority means whether the person signing has the legal right to sell yet — that depends on how title was held and where the estate is in probate. Agreement means the siblings, and the fact that one of them lives in Ohio and wants to keep it. Contents means fifty years of belongings that nobody wants to fly out and sort.

A cash sale solves the third problem outright and works around the first two. We can sign a purchase agreement well before authority is granted and set the closing for when it is. And because there is no lender, no appraisal and no inspection contingency, there is nothing that unravels while the court calendar does its thing.

Probate in California, in plain terms

If the property was held in a living trust, the successor trustee can usually sell without probate at all — that is the fastest path and it is common in San Diego. If it was not, the estate generally goes through probate, and the personal representative is granted either full or limited authority under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. With full authority a sale can typically close after a Notice of Proposed Action to the heirs. With limited authority the sale has to be confirmed in court, which adds a hearing and an overbid process where other buyers can bid the price up in open court.

We buy under all three scenarios. If your sale is going to court confirmation, we will tell you honestly that the overbid process exists and that you may end up with a higher price from a bidder in the room — that is how the process is designed to work, and it is a good outcome for the estate.

The property tax question most heirs do not see coming

Since Proposition 19 took effect in February 2021, California's parent-to-child property tax exclusion is far narrower than it used to be. Broadly: the exclusion now generally applies only where the child makes the inherited home their own principal residence, and even then the protected amount is capped. For most inherited San Diego rentals and second homes, the assessed value resets to current market value — which in a house held since the 1970s can mean a property tax bill several times what the family has been paying.

This matters because "we'll just rent it out for a while and decide later" often pencils very differently once the new tax bill arrives. Talk to a CPA about your specific situation. We are not tax advisors — but we would rather you run the numbers properly than find out in October.

Common questions