Inherited a Brentwood Home? What to Know Before You Sell

I get this call from a different kind of client than most people expect. Not a first-time buyer, not a retiree ready for Trilogy. An adult child, often out of state, holding a set of keys to a house their parent lived in for thirty years, with no idea where to start.

After over 30 years on the lending, title, and escrow side of this business, I know it is rarely the house that is hard. It is the paperwork, the timing, and not knowing which rules apply to you.

Do I have to go through probate to sell my parents' Brentwood home?

Not always. It depends on how the property was titled and what it is worth.

If your parent held the home in a living trust, or if you are named on the title with a right of survivorship, you can often transfer the property without ever going to court, according to the California Courts Self-Help Guide to property after someone dies.

If there was no trust and the home has to go through probate court, California still gives you a shortcut for lower-value real estate. As of April 1, 2025, you can petition the probate court to determine succession to real property, without full probate administration, if the home was the decedent's main home in California and its value is at or under $750,000. That limit came from Assembly Bill 2016 and replaced a much lower ceiling.

If full probate is required, the court appoints a personal representative, usually the person named in the will or the closest relative, who has authority to sell subject to the court's involvement. The Contra Costa County probate division has the required form packet.

The $750,000 line runs right through Brentwood

This is the detail that matters if you are settling an estate here specifically.

Zillow's Home Value Index has the typical Brentwood home around $805,000 as of mid-2026. Plenty of Brentwood homes sit on either side of the $750,000 line, sometimes barely under, sometimes just over. Which side your parent's house lands on decides whether you are looking at a streamlined court petition or a full probate case that can run well past a year.

Assembly Bill 2016, effective April 1, 2025

A primary residence worth $750,000 or less can pass through a court petition instead of full probate.

Brentwood's typical home value sits just above that line, so the appraisal decides the process. Source: California Courts Self-Help Guide.

$750,000

simplified petition ceiling

I always get a real number before anyone assumes which process applies. An agent's comparative market analysis, not a home-value app. Guessing in either direction costs you months.

Do I still need to give buyers a Transfer Disclosure Statement?

Usually, no, and this is the one that surprises people.

California's Transfer Disclosure Statement, or TDS, is the form sellers normally fill out describing a property's condition. But California Civil Code Section 1102.2 specifically exempts "sales or transfers by a fiduciary in the course of the administration of a trust, guardianship, conservatorship, or decedent's estate" from the TDS requirement. If you are selling as the executor, administrator, or successor trustee of your parent's estate, you are generally exempt.

There is one important exception. If you are a natural person acting as trustee of a revocable trust, and you yourself are a former owner of the property or lived in it within the past year, the exemption does not apply to you. In plain terms, if you personally moved into your parent's house before selling it, you likely need to disclose as a regular seller would.

Prop 19 does not protect a home you are selling

This is where families lose real money without knowing it.

Under Proposition 19, a parent-child transfer of a family home can keep the parent's old, lower taxable value, but only if the child moves into the home as their primary residence within one year of the transfer and files for the homeowners' exemption within that same year, per the California State Board of Equalization's Proposition 19 Fact Sheet. If you do not move in, because you are selling instead, the property gets reassessed to current market value as of the date of death. That is the basis your ownership starts from.

The exclusion itself is capped. As of the BOE's most recent adjustment, transfers between February 16, 2025, and February 15, 2027, can exclude up to the home's factored base year value plus $1,044,586 from reassessment. That cap only matters if you are keeping the home.

If you are selling soon after inheriting, Prop 19's ongoing benefit is moot for you. It becomes very relevant if a sibling wants to keep the house and buy the rest of you out. For the version of Prop 19 that applies to people moving rather than selling to a family member, read Don't Overpay Property Taxes When You Downsize.

Will I owe capital gains tax when I sell?

Often much less than people fear, because of what is called a stepped-up basis.

Per the IRS's Gifts and Inheritances guidance, your basis in inherited property is generally the home's fair market value on the date your parent passed away, not what your parent originally paid for it decades ago. You only owe capital gains tax on appreciation between the date of death and your sale date, so a sale close to that value may produce little or no taxable gain at the federal level. If the estate filed a federal estate tax return and used an alternate valuation date six months out, that value can apply instead. This is a conversation to have with a CPA who can look at your specific numbers — I'm not a tax professional, and neither is this post.

Get the value first, then decide everything else

That single number determines whether you are looking at the simplified $750,000 petition or a full probate case, and it is the number your tax basis is built on.

From there: confirm how the property was titled, find out whether a trust exists, and get a straight answer on the probate question before you spend money on repairs or staging. I've sat at enough of these kitchen tables to know families often start prepping a house to sell before they've confirmed who legally has the authority to sell it.

For that first number, start with a hand-built home value estimate, a real comparison of what has sold near the house rather than an automated figure.

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If you are sorting through a parent's Brentwood home and are not sure which of these situations applies to you, send me the address and tell me how the title was held. I'll tell you which side of the $750,000 line the house likely sits on and what that means for your next step, before you spend a dollar on repairs.

(925) 200-0717 — bring me the trust or the probate paperwork and I will tell you which rules apply before you list.

This post is for general informational purposes only and is not legal or tax advice. Probate, property tax reassessment, and capital gains rules depend on the specific facts of an estate. Please consult a probate attorney and a CPA before making decisions about an inherited property. Figures cited reflect the sources and dates noted below and are subject to change.

Margie Lupo, Broker Associate, SRES® · eXp Realty of Northern California, Inc. · DRE #01193496 · Brokerage DRE #02188495 · Equal Housing Opportunity

Sources

• California Courts Self-Help Guide, Property after someone dies — transfers outside probate. Accessed September 10, 2026.
• California Courts Self-Help Guide, Petition to determine succession to real property — $750,000 ceiling, AB 2016. Accessed September 10, 2026.
• Contra Costa County Superior Court, Probate Division — form packet. Accessed September 10, 2026.
• California Civil Code § 1102.2 — fiduciary TDS exemption. Accessed September 10, 2026.
• California State Board of Equalization, Proposition 19 Fact Sheet (Publication 801) — parent-child exclusion, one-year move-in rule. Accessed September 10, 2026.
• California State Board of Equalization, News Release NR 25-02 — $1,044,586 exclusion adjustment. Accessed September 10, 2026.
• IRS, Gifts and Inheritances FAQ — stepped-up basis. Accessed September 10, 2026.