If the home is in a living trust, you can probably skip probate entirely.
The successor trustee named in the trust has the legal authority to sell. No court date. No DE-111. No public filing of family details.
A trust sale is just a sale — with the trustee signing in place of the homeowner.
When the homeowner had a properly funded revocable living trust at the time of death, the home didn’t belong to them personally — it belonged to the trust. The trust survives them. The successor trustee they named takes over and follows the trust’s instructions.
If those instructions say to sell, the trustee sells. The buyer’s title company will ask for: the death certificate, the trust certification (or full trust), and the trustee’s ID. Once those are in order, the transaction proceeds like any other resale.
Faster, quieter, and cheaper than probate. The reason living trusts exist.
The math on this is straightforward.
A short list before we list.
- 01 Locate the trust document. Original if possible. A copy works for most things; title companies want to verify the original at some point.
- 02 Confirm the trust is funded. Pull the most recent grant deed. The home should be vested in the trust’s name. If it’s in the decedent’s personal name, a Heggstad petition or probate may be needed.
- 03 Order certified death certificates. Get five. You’ll go through more than you expect.
- 04 Send the §16061.7 notice to beneficiaries. California requires the trustee to notify all named beneficiaries and the decedent’s heirs within 60 days. Your attorney drafts; you mail.
- 05 Get a date-of-death appraisal. Establishes the stepped-up basis for capital gains. Sets a defensible value if beneficiaries question the sale price later.
- 06 Decide: keep, distribute, or sell. Sometimes the trust dictates. Sometimes the beneficiaries do. Sometimes the math does. We’ll talk through it.
Three patterns I see often.
Three siblings, one home, three opinions.
The trust splits the estate equally. One sibling wants to keep the house. The others want cash. Usually solved by a buyout funded by the sibling who wants to keep, at the date-of-death appraised value.
Trust says sell. House is mid-renovation.
Stop. Finish-or-sell-as-is is a math problem with a specific answer. We’ll get bids on what’s left, compare to a list-as-is price, and decide.
Title is still in the decedent’s personal name.
The trust exists but the home was never deeded in. A Heggstad petition (~4 months) can fix this and avoid full probate, if the documentary intent to transfer is clear.