Estate and trust work accounts for a large share of my practice. An executor, a successor trustee or an attorney needs a defensible value for real property so that assets can be reported, divided or sold without a beneficiary later arguing the number was convenient for somebody.
Probate and Trust Administration
Whether property is moving through probate or being distributed out of a living trust, the fiduciary carries a duty to treat beneficiaries even-handedly. An independent appraisal is how that duty gets documented. I am retained by the estate, not by whichever beneficiary wants a particular outcome, and the report reads the same regardless of who ordered it.
I work routinely alongside estate attorneys, CPAs and professional fiduciaries, and I write reports knowing they may be read by people with no real estate background and a reason to be skeptical.
Current Values and Retrospective Values
Estate assignments often need more than one date: a date-of-death value for tax basis, and a current value for an actual sale or buyout. I prepare either, or both in parallel, so the figures in the accounting and the figures in the listing conversation are reconciled rather than contradictory.
When Beneficiaries Disagree
Where one heir wants to keep the house and another wants to be bought out, the appraisal stops being a formality. These are the assignments most likely to be challenged, so the comparable selection and every adjustment is laid out in the report and I can explain the reasoning directly to counsel or to the family.
Multiple Properties and Partial Interests
Estates frequently hold more than one parcel, sometimes in different counties and sometimes as a fractional interest. I can handle a group of properties on one engagement and will be straightforward about which of them need an inspection and which can be appraised from records.
Where I Can Take This Assignment
Two counties — San Diego and Riverside — I cover in person, which opens up the inspection-based report types. Everywhere else in California I work by desktop appraisal, and that reaches every one of the state's 58 counties. This site carries dedicated pages for 126 communities in 17 of them.
Getting a Figure From Me
The schedule opens at $299 and I pin down your number before any work begins. The whole fee schedule is published here; alternatively, describe the property and why you need it valued and I will come back with a price.