By Corcoran Smith Law Corp. · Published 2026-08-20 · Updated 2026-09-27

Selling Real Property in a California Probate

For California probate real-property sales requiring court confirmation, a private sale generally must meet 90 percent of a recent appraisal. A qualifying first overbid adds 10 percent of the first $10,000 and 5 percent of the balance, subject to court discretion and statutory cash-versus-credit rules. Independent-administration sales can follow a different process.

The two rules that decide the price

What an overbid has to beat

Ten percent of the first $10,000 plus five percent of the balance, per section 10311. The court keeps discretion to decline and order a new sale.

When notice must go out first

Authority under the Independent Administration of Estates Act removes the need for prior court approval of many sales, but it does not remove the need to tell anyone. Section 10580 requires notice of proposed action before acting without supervision where the empowering provision says so, and section 10581 fixes the list: each known devisee and each known heir whose interest would be affected, anyone who has filed for special notice, and the Attorney General where any part of the estate would escheat and the state’s interest would be affected, subject to sections 10582 and 10583. A sale to the personal representative or their attorney generally requires court supervision under section 10501. Subdivision (c) provides a narrow exception for the representative as an individual only when all four statutory conditions are met; it is not a general attorney-transaction exception.

Why buyers and beneficiaries see this differently

To a buyer the overbid rule is a hazard: months of diligence can be undone by a stranger at a hearing. To a beneficiary it is a protection, and the reason an under-market sale to a friend of the executor rarely survives. Where a property was sold quickly, cheaply, and to someone connected to the representative, those are the facts a contested probate claim is built from, and surcharge is what recovers the difference.

When an heir later sells inherited property, federal income tax is generally measured from its value at the date of death, not what the decedent paid. See how inherited property is taxed in California.

Related: what else needs court approval, how the sale price affects the statutory fee, why a sale can require more bond, and where a sale sits in the timeline.