02 · Trust Sales

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.

What it is

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.

Trust sale vs. probate sale

The math on this is straightforward.

Trust sale

Probate sale

Authority to sell

Trust document & certification

Letters Testamentary or Administration (DE-150)

Time to list

Days — once death cert is in hand

~60 days — after Letters issue

Court oversight

None (unless contested)

Required at filing & final petition

Public record

Yes — petition, inventory, heirs

Total time to close

30–60 days from listing

12–18 months typical

Statutory attorney fee

Not required

Yes — per Probate Code §10810

Successor trustee’s first steps

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.

Common situations

Three patterns I see often.

Pattern 01

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.

Pattern 02

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.

Pattern 03

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.