Who to Call First When You Inherit a House in San Diego

Sources: Judicial Council of California, Probate Code section 890 adjusted amounts; Probate Code section 13151; 12 C.F.R. 1024.41(f)(1); California State Board of Equalization.

The first question to answer when you inherit a house

When somebody tells me they inherited a house, I ask one thing before anything else: what happened, and what is the current situation? I am trying to find out who owned it, whether there is a trust, whether there is a will, whether probate has already started, what the family hopes to do, whether there is a mortgage, and what condition the house is in.

Those answers let me look at the tax records and title information and figure out what the next steps actually are. Almost every other decision in this process branches off that one answer.

Trust, will, or nothing: how each one plays out

A simple way to hold it: a trust means there are instructions and usually someone with authority to carry them out. A will means there are instructions about who inherits, but probate may still be needed to carry them out. Nothing means California law decides who inherits, usually through probate. The full sale process once authority exists is in my guide to selling an inherited house in San Diego.

California small estate affidavit and the $750,000 petition

Before going further down the probate road, check whether you even need to be on it. California has summary procedures for smaller estates, and the limits changed on April 1, 2025. If you are reading older articles, you are probably reading the wrong numbers. For deaths on or after April 1, 2025, the amounts published by the Judicial Council of California are:

• $208,850 for personal property collected by the small estate affidavit under Probate Code sections 13100 and 13101. This does not transfer the house itself.
• $750,000 for the decedent’s primary residence, through a Petition to Determine Succession to Real Property under sections 13151 through 13154.
• $69,625 for real property of small value under section 13200.

The $750,000 figure is new. Assembly Bill 2016 raised it from $184,500 and narrowed it at the same time: it now applies only to the decedent’s primary residence in California, measured on gross value, so a rental or vacation property does not qualify. Under Probate Code section 13151, at least 40 days must pass after the death, and the petitioner must deliver notice to each heir and devisee named in the petition within five business days of filing. A probate referee appraises the property. The amounts are keyed to the date of death, and the next scheduled adjustment is April 1, 2028.

I am not going to tell you which of these applies. That is a legal determination, and a probate attorney can usually sort it out in one meeting. But I raise it because I have watched families brace for a year of full probate when they were not headed there.

When nobody can find the trust or will

There is no central database in California where you type in a name and find a trust or will. The family usually has to investigate. Start with the current deed at the county recorder. If title reads something like “John Smith, Trustee of the Smith Family Trust,” you know a trust existed, and the deed may give its exact name and date. Then look through filing cabinets, desks and safes; search the computer and email for who prepared the estate documents, since that attorney may still have a copy; ask the people closest to the deceased; and check safe deposit boxes, financial institutions and court records where appropriate.

The call order: attorney, insurance, servicer, utilities

1. The right attorney

If a trust is in place, you have found it, and you are talking with the trustee who has authority under it, then depending on what the trust says, the trustee may be able to move forward with selling, and I can work with an authorized trustee directly. If there is only a will, or nothing at all, contact a probate attorney. They can determine whether probate is necessary and what has to happen next.

2. The insurance carrier, before the house sits vacant

This is the call that gets skipped most often, with the worst downside. Tell the carrier the owner has passed away, whether there is a trustee or representative, whether the property is occupied or vacant, and what the plan is. Then ask exactly what needs to change to keep appropriate coverage until the property is transferred or sold. Vacancy in particular can change what a policy covers. You do not want a fire, a burst pipe or a break-in during a coverage gap on a property nobody has authority over yet.

3. The mortgage servicer

If there is a mortgage, find out who the servicer is and what documentation they need. The owner passing away does not stop the payments.

Roughly four months is the floor, not a safety margin. It goes fast when a family is grieving and nobody has been appointed yet. If the loan is already behind, or the property is worth less than the balance, see inheriting a house that still has a mortgage and selling a house in pre-foreclosure in San Diego.

4. Utilities, even if the house is empty

Find out who the providers are, make sure the bills are being paid, and check whether they are on autopay. The instinct is to shut everything off to save money. Do not. A house with no power and no water deteriorates faster, shows worse, and some insurance conversations get harder when the utilities are off.

Property taxes and Proposition 19 on an inherited home

The honest framing first: if the family plans to sell, Proposition 19 mostly does not apply to you. The parent-child exclusion only helps if a child is going to live in the house. If one of the children is thinking about moving in and keeping the low tax base, the rules are tight and the deadlines are shorter than most people expect.

If the home passes to more than one child, they do not all have to live there, but at least one eligible child has to occupy it and file. If that child later moves out, the property is reassessed going forward. Filing goes to the San Diego County Assessor, not the state. Whether you qualify is a question for the assessor’s office, a CPA or an attorney. What I can tell you is that the one-year clock starts at the date of death and runs whether or not anyone in the family knows it exists.

Date of death appraisal: why the CPA call cannot wait

When you inherit real estate, the IRS generally treats your basis as the property’s fair market value on the date the person died. What your parents paid in 1978 stops being the relevant number. A San Diego house bought decades ago for $60,000 and worth $900,000 today would show an enormous gain against the original cost. Against a stepped-up basis of about $900,000, a sale soon after the death may show little gain at all.

The part that costs people money: that value has to be documented as of the date of death, not whenever somebody gets around to it. If the house sits for three years and then sells, you still need a defensible record of what it was worth on that day, and three years later the evidence is thinner.

One more to raise with the CPA up front: whether the sale happens in the name of the estate or after distribution to the heirs changes the tax picture, and it is easier to plan than to unwind. If more than one heir ends up on title, see selling a house with multiple owners in San Diego. For current conditions behind any valuation, the San Diego real estate market update is where I keep the county numbers.

Why the letters start, and who not to call first

Here is something almost nobody warns families about. Probate is a public court proceeding. When a petition is filed with the San Diego County Superior Court, the case becomes public record, usually including the property address. Companies pull those filings regularly. Some are wholesalers, some are investors, and some are lead resellers who never buy a house at all; they sell your name and address to somebody who does.

So not long after the filing, the mail starts. Envelopes that look handwritten. Postcards that say they buy houses in any condition. Then calls and texts. That mail is not the court contacting you, and it is not a sign that anything is wrong. In most cases the sender has never seen the property. If a letter says the offer expires Friday, that is a sales technique, not a deadline.

I would not start with wholesalers or cash buyers. In my experience they are generally looking to buy at a discount, which can mean giving away equity your family spent years building. They have a place in some situations, depending on condition and what the family wants. But get an honest read on open-market value first. That option will still be there in sixty days. And nothing should be cleared out of the house before someone with authority says so.

What is urgent in the first 60 days, and what can wait

In the first 30 to 60 days, make sure the mortgage, HOA dues, property taxes, insurance and necessary utilities are being handled. If you pay any of that out of pocket to protect the property, keep receipts and ask the probate attorney about reimbursement from the estate.

Most of the rest can wait, and giving yourself permission to let it wait is part of getting through this without an expensive decision in the first two weeks:

• Personal property. It should not be dealt with before someone has authority.
• Repairs. Unless something is actively causing damage, like a roof leak, wait until you know whether you are selling, selling as-is, or keeping the house.
• Deciding whether to sell. In most cases nobody has authority yet anyway. If the family is split, see what to do when heirs disagree about selling.
• Listing, showings and dividing the money. Those come later, and there is a process for each.

When it is time to prepare the house and the estate is short on cash, the Lovery Concierge Program can front up to $10,000 of pre-listing work, including photography and staging.

Where an agent fits, and what to ask one

I have set up my business to be a resource for people going through exactly this. Early on, my job is to help you understand where you are, what is missing, and who to talk to next, before you spend money or make major decisions. Until someone has authority to sell, you are not hiring me to sell the house. What I provide then is consultation: a date-of-death value for the estate’s records, what the property may be worth today, and real estimates of net proceeds after the mortgage and selling costs. When authority arrives, the family already has numbers.

A probate-competent agent understands court confirmation, the overbid process, Notices of Proposed Action, who actually has authority to sign, and the disclosure rules when an estate sells. If you get to the point of hiring someone, ask them, and ask me too:

• How many probate or trust sales have you closed, and when?
• Have you worked a court-confirmed sale? Walk me through the overbid hearing.
• Do you know whether the representative has full or limited authority, and what changes either way?
• Which disclosures apply, and which do not, when the seller is an estate?
• Who do you work with on the legal and tax side?

Answers that should worry you: “You do not need an attorney.” “Sign here and we will figure out the authority piece later.” “We should list right away before the market moves.” “I will just buy it from you myself,” slipped in rather than put on the table. Or any pressure to clean out the house, start repairs, or sign something in the first meeting. You are allowed to interview more than one person and take a week. You can read what past clients say on my client reviews page.

Ryan Fisher

Realtor · Founder, Lovery Real Estate

I am a San Diego Realtor and the founder of Lovery Real Estate, with $56M+ in career sales across 90+ transactions. I work with families across Chula Vista, Bonita, North Park, University Heights, Normal Heights and La Jolla Mesa, and throughout San Diego County, including inherited property and probate and trust sales.

Before real estate I played professional baseball after being drafted out of UC Irvine. I grew up around Fisher Bros. House Moving, the fifth-generation California house-moving business my family ran from the 1850s, and worked in it myself before real estate.

Here are your options, here are the numbers, here is what I would do. No pressure. No performance.