Selling an apartment building through probate or a trust.
The single biggest variable is not the building. It is what document controls it and what authority the person signing actually holds. A trust-held building can close in thirty days. The same building in a supervised probate can take the better part of a year and sell to a stranger who walked into the courtroom. Here is how to tell which one you are in.
Read the Letters before you read the offers.
This one paragraph determines everything that follows.
If the property is in a revocable living trust and the successor trustee has the power to sell, almost none of the probate machinery applies. No petition, no Letters, no publication, no probate referee appraisal, no 90%-of-appraised-value floor, no confirmation hearing, no overbid, no court approval of commission. The building sells on ordinary market terms and closes through escrow like any other transaction.
If the property is in a decedent's estate, the question is what authority the personal representative holds under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. And it is a question with a precise answer, printed on the Letters themselves.
- Full authority — the PR can sell without a confirmation hearing, without publication, without the 90% floor, and without court approval of commission. A Notice of Proposed Action is still required.
- Limited authority — the PR has every power except the four that matter to you: sell real property, exchange real property, grant an option to purchase real property, and borrow against real property. For a seller, limited authority is worth nothing.
- No IAEA authority — full court supervision, start to finish.
Probate Code § 8405(c) requires the Letters to state whether the authority includes or excludes each of those four real property powers. So before anyone lists anything, pull the Letters and read that line. We have watched more than one estate market a building for two months before discovering the PR could not sell it.
Prob. Code § 8405; § 10402 (full authority); § 10403 (limited authority); § 10503 (what full authority removes). Verified 24 August 2026.
What a court-confirmed sale actually involves.
The realistic timeline.
The Judicial Council's own guidance says the entire probate process typically takes 9 to 18 months and can take longer. Working purely from statutory minimums — petition to hearing at 15 to 30 days, letters issued, publication running concurrently with marketing, at least 15 days' notice before the confirmation hearing, then escrow and recording — the theoretical floor from filing to recorded deed is roughly three and a half to four months. That is a floor, not a forecast, and we have never seen a Los Angeles estate hit it.
We are not going to publish a specific LA County month range, because LA Superior Court does not publish probate hearing lead times and we will not invent one. What the court does publish is instructive: in fiscal year 2024–25 LA County recorded 12,051 "Other Probate" filings against 9,947 dispositions — a clearance rate of about 82.5%, meaning the backlog grew that year. LA accounted for 28.7% of all such filings statewide.
California Courts self-help, Formal probate; 2026 Court Statistics Report, Tables 12a/12b, FY 2024–25.
Four rules that cause most of the delay.
- The one-year appraisal rule. Probate Code § 10309 requires both the appraisal and its valuation date to fall within one year before the confirmation hearing. An estate that takes a year to reach sale needs a reappraisal or the sale cannot be confirmed. This is a structural cause of continuances, not bad luck.
- Publication sequencing. Under LA Superior Court Rule 4.39(a), if the Report of Sale is filed before the sale date stated in the published notice, or shows the sale happened before that date, the sale will not be confirmed. A sequencing error costs a full re-noticed cycle.
- Probate notes. Under LASC Rule 4.4, notes not cleared by the third court day before the hearing mean a continuance or a denial.
- Exclusive listings expire. Probate Code § 10150(c) caps each exclusive listing term at 90 days. Every extension is another ex parte application.
And the sale is not final until the gavel falls.
This is the part that surprises buyers and sellers equally. At the confirmation hearing, anyone can walk in and overbid. The statutory minimum first overbid, verbatim from § 10311(a)(1), is an amount at least 10 percent more on the first $10,000 of the original bid and 5 percent more on the amount above $10,000.
In plain arithmetic: original bid + $1,000 + 5% of everything over $10,000. On a $2,000,000 accepted offer, the minimum overbid is $2,100,500. On $5,000,000, it is $5,250,500. Effectively a hair over 5% at any LA multifamily price point.
Prob. Code § 10311; the same formula reappears as a confirmation test at § 10313(a)(6).
Two honest caveats we see stated wrongly everywhere. Nothing in the Probate Code sets the increment for bids after the first one — § 10311(b) simply says the court accepts the highest qualifying offer, so the judge running the bidding sets subsequent increments as courtroom discretion. Any article quoting a fixed $1,000 or 1% subsequent increment is describing custom, not law. Likewise, there is no statutory overbid deposit amount — not in § 10311, not in § 10313, not in the California Rules of Court, not in LASC's local rules. The familiar "cashier's check for 10% of the minimum overbid" is bench practice, and it varies. Confirm with the department hearing the matter and get LASC form PRO 009 in advance.
And the court can decline to accept an overbid at all and order a new sale, conducted as if no previous sale had taken place.
The LA 5% cap that overrides your listing agreement.
LA Superior Court Local Rule 4.39(d), verbatim: "The court will not permit a commission to an agent, broker, or auctioneer in excess of five percent for the sale of improved real property unless justified by exceptional circumstances."
An apartment building is improved real property. In a court-confirmed sale in Los Angeles County, 5% total is the ceiling, regardless of what the listing agreement says. And Probate Code § 10161(a) puts the number in the court's hands entirely — whether or not the broker has a contract with the personal representative, the compensation is what the court determines is reasonable, capped at the contract amount.
There is a related provision worth knowing if you are a bidder: under § 10166, a bid conditioned on a certain amount going to a broker does not bind the court, and acceptance of the bid binds the bidder even if the court allows less commission than the condition specified.
Note the interaction with IAEA, because it cuts the other way. Full authority under § 10503 removes court approval of brokers' commissions from the sale entirely — which means Rule 4.39(d) is never engaged and the 5% cap does not apply. Same building, same broker, different authority, different fee ceiling.
LASC Local Rules, Chapter 4, Rule 4.39(d) (amended effective 1 July 2023; in the local rules effective 1 July 2026); Prob. Code § 10161, § 10166, § 10165 (overbid commission split).
Faster — but one heir can undo it.
Full IAEA authority is a much better place to sell from. It is not bulletproof, and the failure mode is worth understanding before you rely on it.
A full-authority sale of real property still requires a Notice of Proposed Action. This is the point most summaries miss: § 10511, the power to sell real property, sits inside the article titled "Powers Exercisable Only After Giving Notice of Proposed Action."
The NOPA goes to each known devisee and heir whose interest would be affected and to anyone who filed a request for special notice, delivered not less than 15 days before the date on or after which the action is to be taken. For a real property sale it must state the material terms including the sale price and the commission or the method of calculating it.
But the objection window is not a clean 15 days.
Section 10587(c) keeps it open until the later of the date specified in the notice or the date the action is actually taken. So if your NOPA says "on or after March 1" and escrow closes April 15, an objection arriving on April 10 is timely.
And § 10588(a) is the provision that should make every estate seller careful: any person entitled to the notice may apply for an order restraining the PR from acting without court supervision, and "the court shall grant the requested order without requiring notice to the personal representative and without cause being shown." No cause. No notice to you.
If a timely objection or a restraining order lands, § 10589(a) collapses the deal back into a full court-supervised sale — with publication, the 90% floor, and an open overbid at the confirmation hearing. One unhappy sibling converts a clean thirty-day escrow into a nine-month process with a real chance the building sells to somebody else.
Prob. Code §§ 10510–10511, § 10581, § 10585, § 10586, § 10587, § 10588, § 10589. Objections can be avoided entirely where every affected person signs a written waiver or consent under §§ 10582–10583 — get those signed before you go to market.
One trap that catches families constantly.
If an heir wants to buy the building out of the estate, court supervision is required whether the PR has full authority or not. Same rule if the buyer is the PR's attorney. There is a narrow exception where the PR is the sole beneficiary, or where all known heirs and devisees consent, the creditor claim period has run, no unconsented special-notice request is on file, and every filed creditor claim is resolved. Plan for it early; it is the most common reason a family buyout takes three times as long as anyone expected.
Why a trust closes in weeks instead of months.
The trust instrument controls, so read it first.
The trustee's power to acquire or dispose of property comes from Probate Code § 16226, subject to the duty to administer according to the trust instrument under § 16000. Confirm the sale power is there and check whether all co-trustees must sign. That is a five-minute read that prevents a five-week problem.
What the title company will actually want.
A Certification of Trust under § 18100.5 — presented in lieu of the trust instrument itself — establishing the trust's existence, the settlors, the currently acting trustees, the trustee's powers, revocability, signature authority, the tax ID and the legal description. It must state that the trust has not been revoked or amended in a way that would make the certification incorrect, and be an acknowledged declaration signed by all currently acting trustees. It expressly need not contain the dispositive provisions.
You do not have to hand over the whole trust.
Under § 18100.5(e) a title company may require excerpts and any documents evidencing succession of the trustee or conferring the power to act — and that is the limit of the entitlement. Section 18100.5(h) provides that a person who demands more than that, and refuses to accept the certification, is liable for damages including attorney's fees if a court finds they acted in bad faith. Families are often bullied into producing the entire instrument. You are not required to.
The practical closing package.
Certification of trust, certified death certificate for the deceased trustee, an Affidavit — Death of Trustee recorded against the property, the trustee's identification, and the succession excerpts. This is title practice rather than statute, but it is what every LA escrow will ask for.
One clock that does apply.
The trustee must serve the notification by trustee within 60 days of the event requiring it — including a revocable trust becoming irrevocable on a settlor's death. That notice carries a required boldface warning that a trust contest must be brought within 120 days of service, or 60 days from delivery of the trust terms during that window, whichever is later. It does not block a sale, but a buyer's counsel may ask where you are in it.
Proposition 19 gives an apartment building essentially nothing.
If you take one thing from this page, take this one. It is the most expensive misunderstanding we encounter in inherited LA multifamily.
The parent-child reassessment exclusion under Proposition 19 applies only to a "family home" or a "family farm." And "family home" is defined as a dwelling eligible for a homeowners' or disabled veterans' exemption as a result of the transferor's own ownership and occupation — including only the portion of land of reasonable size used as the residence site.
So a pure investment apartment building transferred parent to child is fully reassessed to market. No exclusion at all. The drafters were explicit about it, stating the intent to protect family homes while eliminating loopholes used to avoid property taxes on "vacation homes, income properties, and beachfront rentals."
Two corollaries families get wrong. A trust does not avoid this — the statute defines "transfer" to include a transfer of present beneficial ownership through an inter vivos or testamentary trust. And where the decedent lived in one unit of a duplex or fourplex, only that portion can qualify, and only if the transferee makes it their own principal residence within one year and claims the exemption.
Cal. Const. art. XIII A, § 2.1(c)(1) and (e)(3); Rev. & Tax. Code § 63.2, including § 63.2(e)(5) and (e)(9). The pre-2021 regime under art. XIII A § 2(h) became inoperative 16 February 2021.
And where the exclusion does apply, it is a cap, not an exemption.
The exclusion amount for transfers between 16 February 2025 and 15 February 2027 is $1,044,586, adjusted every other February 16 by the California House Price Index. Mechanically it does not exempt that amount — the new taxable value is the old taxable value plus the amount by which fair market value exceeds old taxable value plus $1,044,586.
There is also a claim deadline with a clause that matters enormously to an estate that intends to sell: within three years after the transfer, or before the property is transferred to a third party, or before the transferee stops occupying the residence — whichever is earlier. If a residence-eligible portion exists and you sell before claiming, the claim is gone.
Cal. Const. art. XIII A, § 2.1(c)(4); BOE News Release 25-02, 7 March 2025 (LTA 2025/009). Next adjustment 16 February 2027. Rev. & Tax. Code § 63.2(d) and (f)(1).
The one piece of good news, and it is a big one.
Basis. Property acquired from a decedent generally takes a fair market value basis as of the date of death. For a building held in the family for decades, that step-up can eliminate an enormous amount of gain — and in California, where the property was community property, there is a rule that steps up both halves rather than only the decedent's. That is a materially different outcome than in a separate-property state and it is worth getting right.
This is a CPA question and we are not going to pretend otherwise. What we will tell you is the practical consequence: get a proper date-of-death appraisal, and get it early. It sets the basis you will use, it is the document the IRS and the FTB will look at, and reconstructing a valuation three years after the fact is expensive and weak. There is also a consistency requirement tying reported basis to the estate's reported value. Talk to your CPA before you talk to a buyer.
What estates keep discovering too late.
Unregistered RSO units.
A building administered for two years by an out-of-state executor who did not know LAHD existed is a building that has been collecting rent it could not lawfully collect. Registration must be current — fees paid and Rent Registry submitted — before rent may be demanded or accepted, and tenants may raise non-payment of RSO or SCEP fees as an affirmative defense against eviction. Check this the week you are appointed, not the week you go to escrow.
Multiple heirs with different objectives.
One wants cash now, one wants to hold, one wants to buy the others out. Under full authority, the one who wants to hold can obtain a restraining order without notice and without showing cause. The fix is procedural and cheap: get written waivers and consents under §§ 10582–10583 signed before marketing, not after an offer arrives.
Deferred maintenance discovered during administration.
Estates rarely spend money on buildings. Two years of no capital spending, plus whatever the decedent deferred in their last years, plus a City that does not pause its clocks for probate — an open soft-story order keeps running on its original service date regardless of who owns the building or whether anyone is administering it.
The 9A report is still your obligation.
LAMC § 96.300 requires the seller of residential property in the City to obtain a Report of Residential Property Records and deliver it to the buyer before the agreement of sale or before close of escrow. $70.85 per parcel. Estates forget this constantly, and it is the report that surfaces open orders and pending assessments to your buyer.
Questions owners actually ask.
How long does it take to sell an apartment building out of a California estate?
It depends almost entirely on authority. With a revocable trust and a successor trustee holding the power to sell, an ordinary escrow — we regularly close these in 20 to 30 days. With full IAEA authority, add the 15-day Notice of Proposed Action and the risk of an objection. With limited or no authority, you are in a court-confirmed sale, and the Judicial Council says the overall probate process typically runs 9 to 18 months.
What is the minimum overbid at a confirmation hearing?
The original bid plus $1,000 plus 5% of the amount over $10,000, under Probate Code § 10311(a)(1). On a $2,000,000 accepted offer that is $2,100,500. Nothing in the code sets the increment for bids after the first one — the judge running the bidding sets those.
Can I avoid the overbid?
Only by not being in a court-confirmed sale. Full IAEA authority removes the confirmation hearing, the overbid, the 90% floor, publication of the notice of sale and court approval of commission. That is why reading the Letters is the first step.
Is the broker commission capped in a probate sale?
In Los Angeles County, yes, where the court sets it: LASC Rule 4.39(d) caps commission at 5% for improved real property absent exceptional circumstances, whatever the listing agreement says. Under full IAEA authority the court does not approve the commission, so the cap is not engaged.
Does Proposition 19 protect an inherited apartment building from reassessment?
Essentially no. The exclusion covers only a family home or family farm, and "family home" means a dwelling that qualified for the transferor's homeowners' or disabled veterans' exemption. A pure investment building transferred parent to child is fully reassessed to market, and putting it in a trust does not change that. Confirm your specific situation with your CPA and the County Assessor.
Should the estate fix the building before selling?
Almost never. Estates have poor access to capital, heirs rarely agree on spending, and the work stretches an administration that is already costing money. Selling as-is to a buyer who prices the condition honestly is usually faster and nets more than a renovation an estate has to fund and supervise.
This page is general information from an active Los Angeles multifamily buyer, written to help owners understand how a sale actually works. It is not legal, tax, or accounting advice, and it is not a substitute for your own professionals. Rules change, deadlines move, and the facts of your building matter. Before you act, talk to your real estate attorney about ordinance exposure and contract terms, your CPA about basis and tax treatment, and a qualified intermediary before you close if a 1031 exchange is in play — a qualified intermediary must be engaged before the sale closes, not after.
Every figure on this page is cited to the primary source it came from, with the date we verified it. Where we could not verify a number, we say so rather than estimate.
We buy from estates and trusts regularly.
We can work within a court-confirmed timeline, and we can close in weeks when the trustee has authority. As-is, tenants in place, no financing contingency and no repair demands. Send the address and whatever documents you have — including the Letters — and we will tell you which path you are actually on.