When a property owner dies, the fair market value of their real estate has to be established as of that exact date rather than today. That single figure drives probate accounting, federal estate reporting, and the stepped-up cost basis that will determine capital-gains tax whenever the property is finally sold.
Who Orders One, and Why
Executors, successor trustees, CPAs, and estate attorneys order date-of-death appraisals to settle probate through the San Diego County Superior Court, to support IRS Form 706, to divide assets among heirs, and to document basis. Property held in a revocable living trust needs the same date-specific figure before the trustee can administer or distribute it.
Reconstructing the Market on a Past Date
A retrospective assignment is not a matter of discounting today's price. I rebuild the market as it stood on the date of death, working from sales that closed in that window and from the conditions buyers and sellers actually faced at the time. The finished report lays out the subject property, the comparable evidence, the market as of that date, and a conclusion supported step by step.
Written for the IRS and the Court
Every report follows USPAP and is organized so an attorney, a CPA, a probate judge, or an IRS examiner can follow the reasoning without a phone call. After more than two decades and thousands of assignments across San Diego County, my reports are relied on by fiduciaries and counsel who cannot afford a valuation that will not hold.
A Word on Stepped-Up Basis
Inherited real estate takes a new cost basis equal to its fair market value on the date of death. Document that figure credibly and the heirs owe capital-gains tax only on appreciation earned afterward. Skip it, or guess at it, and the savings can evaporate under examination.
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