Selling an Inherited House in Sacramento CA: Probate Guide 2026

Q: How much does probate cost in Sacramento County?

California sets attorney fees by statute as a percentage of the estate's gross value: 4 percent of the first $100,000, 3 percent of the next $100,000, and 2 percent of the next $800,000. On a $600,000 house that is $15,000, and the executor is entitled to the same amount again, though family executors often waive it. Critically, the fee is calculated on gross value, so a mortgage does not reduce it.

Q: Will I owe capital gains tax on an inherited house in California?

Usually far less than people expect. Inherited property receives a stepped-up cost basis equal to its fair market value on the date of death. If you sell near that date for close to that value, there is little or no taxable gain. The gain is measured from the date-of-death value, not from what your parent originally paid. Confirm your specific situation with a CPA.

Q: What happens if the heirs disagree about selling?

If co-owners cannot agree, any one of them can file a partition action, and a court can order the property sold and the proceeds divided. Partition is slow and expensive, and the legal fees come out of everyone's share. Most families do better negotiating a buyout or agreeing on a sale before it reaches that point.

Inheriting a house in Sacramento County usually arrives at the worst possible moment. You are grieving, the estate paperwork is piling up, and a property you may live nowhere near is quietly costing you money in taxes, insurance, and utilities every month it sits.

The good news is that selling an inherited house in Sacramento is not as locked-down as most people assume. You often do not need to wait for probate to finish, and thanks to a law that took effect in April 2025, many families no longer need full probate at all. This guide walks through when you can skip probate, when you can sell during it, what it actually costs, and the two tax rules that usually decide whether it makes more sense to sell or to keep.

As a local home buyer in Sacramento County, Rework Cash Offers has helped heirs sell inherited properties as-is, often in 7–14 days. And once you have waited out an estate, the last thing you need is a buyer who flakes at the closing table — which is why every offer we make is backed by our $5,000 Close Guarantee.

This page is general information, not legal or tax advice. Estates differ, and the details below turn on facts specific to yours. Talk to a probate attorney or CPA before you act.

First: Do You Even Need Probate?

Plenty of Sacramento heirs spend months bracing for probate they never actually needed. There are three common ways an inherited house avoids it.

The house was in a living trust. Trust property passes directly to the beneficiaries without probate. The successor trustee can typically sell it immediately. If this is your situation, our guide on selling a house held in a trust covers the process.

The house was held in joint tenancy or community property with right of survivorship. Title passes to the surviving owner automatically. Usually all that is required is recording an affidavit of death and a certified death certificate.

The estate qualifies for a simplified petition. This is the big one, and it is new. Effective April 1, 2025, AB 2016 raised the threshold for a Petition to Determine Succession to Real Property (Probate Code §§13150–13152). If the home was the decedent’s primary residence and is worth $750,000 or less, heirs can transfer it through a streamlined court petition instead of full probate. The old ceiling was $184,500 — which excluded essentially every house in Sacramento County. The new one covers a large share of them.

Two conditions to watch: you must wait at least 40 days after the death to file, and the $750,000 limit applies only to a primary residence. A rental, a second home, or other estate assets are still measured against the separate $184,500 limit.

If any of these apply, you may be able to sell in weeks rather than a year. Our post on how to avoid probate when selling an inherited house goes deeper.

How Long Does Probate Take in Sacramento County?

If you do need full probate, plan on months, not weeks:

Simplified petition (primary residence under $750,000): typically a few months, driven mostly by the 40-day wait and the court’s hearing calendar.
Standard formal probate: commonly 9–18 months.
Contested estates or feuding heirs: two years or more.

Sacramento County Superior Court’s probate calendar is busy, so hearing dates are frequently the bottleneck rather than the paperwork itself. For a fuller breakdown, see how long probate takes in Sacramento County.

Can You Sell the House Before Probate Ends?

This is the single most misunderstood part of the process, and getting it wrong costs families months.

In most cases, yes — you do not need a judge to bless the sale.

When the court appoints an executor or administrator, it grants authority under the Independent Administration of Estates Act (IAEA), and that authority comes in two flavors:

Full authority. The personal representative can sell the house without a court confirmation hearing. They send a Notice of Proposed Action to the heirs and beneficiaries at least 15 days before closing. If nobody objects, the sale simply closes — no hearing, no overbidding, no auction. It runs on roughly the same timeline as an ordinary sale. Most Sacramento estates are granted full authority.

Limited authority. Here the house does require court confirmation. A Notice of Sale must be published, the court holds a confirmation hearing, other buyers can show up and overbid your buyer in open court, and the accepted price generally must be at least 90% of the probate referee’s appraised value. Expect this to add roughly one to two months, and understand that your buyer can be outbid at the hearing after doing all the work.

So before you assume you are stuck waiting, find out which authority the executor holds. It is stated in the Letters issued by the court. That one line determines whether you can sell now or must wait for a hearing.

What Probate Actually Costs

California is one of the few states that fixes probate attorney fees by statute. Under Probate Code §10810, the attorney’s fee is a percentage of the estate’s gross value:

4% of the first $100,000
3% of the next $100,000
2% of the next $800,000
1% of the next $9 million

The executor is entitled to that same amount again under §10800, though a family member serving as executor often waives it (an inheritance is not taxed as income; an executor fee is).

Gross value of estate	Statutory attorney fee	Executor fee (same)	If both are paid
$500,000	$13,000	$13,000	$26,000
$600,000	$15,000	$15,000	$30,000
$750,000	$18,000	$18,000	$36,000
$900,000	$21,000	$21,000	$42,000

The word doing the damage in that schedule is “gross.” Fees are calculated on the property’s full appraised value — the mortgage is not subtracted. Inherit a $700,000 house carrying a $400,000 loan and you hold $300,000 in real equity, but the statutory fee is still computed on $700,000.

On top of that, budget for a probate referee (a court-appointed appraiser, roughly 0.1% of appraised value), the court filing fee, publication costs, and certified copies. Extraordinary services — litigation, a contested sale, a difficult property — can be billed above the statutory schedule.

The Two Tax Rules That Decide Whether to Sell or Keep

Most heirs worry about the wrong tax. Here are the two that actually matter.

Stepped-up basis usually means little or no capital gains

Inherited property receives a stepped-up cost basis: for tax purposes, your basis becomes the home’s fair market value on the date of death, not what your parents paid for it decades ago.

The practical effect is large. A house bought in 1985 for $90,000 and worth $600,000 at death has a basis of $600,000 in your hands. Sell it soon after for $610,000 and the taxable gain is roughly $10,000 — not $520,000. The decades of appreciation are effectively wiped clean.

This is why “I’ll get destroyed on capital gains” is usually the wrong reason to hold an inherited house. See tax implications of an inherited house for detail, and confirm your numbers with a CPA.

Proposition 19 usually means your property taxes jump

This is the rule that catches families off guard, and it points the other way.

Before 2021, a child could inherit a parent’s house and keep the parent’s low Prop 13 tax base. Proposition 19 narrowed that sharply. The parent-child exclusion now applies only if:

the home was the parent’s primary residence, and
you make it your own primary residence within one year, and
you file the claim in time.

Even then the exclusion is capped (currently $1,044,586 for transfers between February 16, 2025 and February 15, 2027; value above that gets added back).

If you keep the house as a rental, a second home, or leave it vacant, it is reassessed at full market value as of the date of death. A parent paying property tax on a 1990s assessed value can easily become an heir paying tax on today’s value — a difference of thousands of dollars a year, every year, on a house nobody is living in.

That reassessment is one of the most common reasons Sacramento heirs decide to sell rather than hold.

When Multiple Heirs Disagree

Shared inheritances are where families get stuck. One sibling wants to sell, another wants to keep it, a third wants to rent it out — and meanwhile the mortgage, taxes, insurance, and utilities keep running.

If co-owners genuinely cannot agree, any single one of them can file a partition action and ask a court to force a sale. It works, but it is slow, expensive, and the legal fees come out of everyone’s proceeds. A negotiated buyout or an agreed sale nearly always leaves more money on the table for everyone. Our guide to selling an inherited house with multiple heirs covers the options.

One practical advantage of a cash sale here: a single, firm, all-cash number is far easier for four siblings to agree on than a listing that might sell for something, someday, after some repairs.

Your Three Options for Selling

Option	Timeline	You pay	Best when
List with an agent	30–60+ days on market, plus escrow	5–6% commission, repairs, staging, holding costs	The house shows well, you can afford to carry it, and you want top dollar
List during limited-authority probate	Add 30–60 days for the confirmation hearing	Commission plus court costs; buyer can be overbid	Court confirmation is required and time is not critical
Sell as-is for cash	7–14 days	No commission, no repairs, no closing costs	The house needs work, it is far away, heirs need certainty, or holding costs are bleeding the estate

An honest word on the trade-off: a cash offer is not a retail price. You are exchanging some top-end value for speed, certainty, and zero work. Where that trade pays off is when the house needs real repairs, when it sits empty racking up costs, or when several heirs need a clean, fast, unanimous answer. Where it does not pay off is a well-maintained house in a strong neighborhood that you have the time and patience to list properly. We will tell you honestly which one you are holding. Our comparison of probate sale vs. cash offer lays out the math.

If the property needs significant work, selling a house that needs repairs and selling a hoarder house cover what “as-is” really means — including the fact that you do not need to clear it out. You can take what matters to you and leave the rest.

Step-by-Step: Selling an Inherited House in Sacramento County

Locate the will, trust, and deed. How title was held decides everything that follows. A trust or joint tenancy may mean no probate at all.
Determine whether probate is required. Check the trust, the vesting on the deed, and whether the home qualifies for the simplified $750,000 primary-residence petition.
Open the estate if needed. File with the Sacramento County Superior Court probate division. Sacramento accepts probate e-filing, so this does not necessarily require a trip downtown.
Confirm the authority granted. Read the Letters. Full authority means you can sell without a confirmation hearing.
Secure and insure the property. Vacant homes are a magnet for vandalism, squatters, and burst pipes — and many homeowners policies lapse or limit coverage once a house is unoccupied. Tell the insurer it is vacant.
Get a real valuation. The probate referee’s appraisal sets the tax basis and, under limited authority, the 90% floor for any sale.
Choose your path. List it, or take a cash offer. Get at least one of each so you know what the spread actually is.
Close and distribute. Under full authority, send the 15-day Notice of Proposed Action and close. Under limited authority, calendar the confirmation hearing.

Local Notes: Sacramento, Placer, and Yolo Counties

Probate petitions for Sacramento County are handled by the Superior Court’s probate division at 813 6th Street, Sacramento, CA 95814, and the court’s self-help center offers free forms and guidance for executors working without an attorney. E-filing is available for most probate documents.

Placer County (Roseville, Rocklin, Lincoln) and Yolo County (Davis, Woodland, West Sacramento) run their own probate calendars with their own backlogs, so timelines vary by county even for identical estates. We buy inherited houses across all three.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you sell an inherited house before probate is finished in California? Often, yes. If the court granted the executor full authority under the Independent Administration of Estates Act, the house can be sold during probate without a court confirmation hearing. The executor sends a Notice of Proposed Action to the heirs at least 15 days before closing, and if nobody objects, the sale closes like a normal sale. Only estates under limited authority require a confirmation hearing with overbidding.

Do I have to go through probate to sell an inherited house in Sacramento County? Not always. If the home was held in a living trust or in joint tenancy with right of survivorship, it passes outside probate. As of April 1, 2025, California also allows a simplified Petition to Determine Succession to Real Property for a decedent’s primary residence valued up to $750,000. You must wait at least 40 days after the death to file.

How much does probate cost in Sacramento County? Attorney fees are set by statute as a percentage of the estate’s gross value: 4% of the first $100,000, 3% of the next $100,000, and 2% of the next $800,000. On a $600,000 house that is $15,000, and the executor is entitled to the same amount again, though family executors often waive it. Because the fee runs on gross value, a mortgage does not reduce it.

Will I owe capital gains tax on an inherited house in California? Usually far less than people expect. Inherited property gets a stepped-up basis equal to its fair market value on the date of death, so if you sell near that date for close to that value, there is little or no taxable gain. Confirm your situation with a CPA.

Will my property taxes go up on an inherited house? Very likely, unless you move in. Under Proposition 19, the parent-child exclusion applies only if the home was the parent’s primary residence and you make it your own primary residence within one year, and even then it is capped. Kept as a rental, a vacation home, or left vacant, the house is reassessed at full market value as of the date of death.

What happens if the heirs disagree about selling? Any co-owner can file a partition action and ask a court to order the property sold. It works, but it is slow and expensive, and the fees come out of everyone’s share. A negotiated buyout or an agreed sale almost always nets the family more.

Next Steps

You do not have to wait out a year of probate to turn an inherited house into cash — and in many Sacramento estates, you do not have to wait at all. Find out how title was held, find out what authority the executor holds, and get a real number for the property before the holding costs and a Prop 19 reassessment start eating the inheritance.

If you inherited a house in Sacramento, Placer, or Yolo County, request your free cash offer. We buy as-is — no repairs, no cleanout, no commissions, no fees — we work directly with executors and probate attorneys, and we close on your timeline. Every offer is backed by our $5,000 Close Guarantee.

Selling an Inherited House in Sacramento County, CA (Probate Guide)