The real estate market was hot last year with overbids on every house that went on the market. As they were about to close the sale of their dad’s house for $150,000 over asking price, title came back and the house was in Dad Jones and Mom Jones names; Son Jones Realtor was in my networking group and gave me a call. The Realtor said that Mom and Dad Jones had a Trust and hoped we could just put the house into the Trust. Sadly, since Dad and Mom Jones were both dead, we were going to have to go to Probate Court.
There were two options for this family. One was to do a Petition under the probate code (Heggstad); the second was a traditional probate. A traditional probate is more expensive, but faster because a Probate Petition must be heard in 6 weeks. I filed a Probate on behalf of Son Jones and in 6 weeks he was appointed as Executor. As soon as the court processed the paperwork, we were able to close the sale.
This is a cautionary tale. Just because you have a Trust doesn’t mean you automatically avoid probate. Your house needs to be transferred by a deed into your Trust.
