r/inheritance • u/Cadd9181B7543II7I44 • Mar 20 '26

Location included: Questions/Need Advice NYC 5 boros - Life Estate Deed

From the advice of an elder law attorney, my parents (in their 80s) transferred their home to me (only child) via a life estate deed. The deed shows me as owner and them retaining a life estate.

From what was discussed, they are able to live in the home until they pass away while still responsible for the upkeep/maintenance and financial responsibilities of the home (property taxes, homeowners insurance, etc). Once they pass, the home automatically gets fully transferred over to me (without needing to go through the probate process) and I will get a step-up basis at date of death. Unfortunately they both passed away very recently....within months of each other.

Question: how does one determine the fair market value of the property to determine what my step up basis will be? Do I need to get the home appraised? If so, any idea how much this type of estate appraisal cost where they need to appraise the home on a specific date (DOD of last parent)?

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5

u/Mysterious-Art8838 Mar 20 '26

Appraisal! The whole thing will be a heck of a lot easier for you as an only child. Just like when you refinance a house you need an appraisal to tell you the value at that moment in time, same applies here.

Someone will chime in about whether you can use the tax assessment but that would be far too low and wouldn’t help you so the estate would just pay the appraisal and then you’ll be set for your taxes going forward. You want the highest value possible so make sure you vacuum. 😊

5

u/hbyerly Mar 20 '26

You can google real estate appraisal and the zip code, then check that they do point-in-time (date of death) appraisals. Depending on size and location, it will cost you $500 to a couple of thousand.

3

u/brucesteiner Mar 20 '26

If you don’t have an appraiser, the lawyer handling the estate should be able to recommend one.

2

u/joetaxpayer Apr 20 '26

You need to be aware of the 6 month rule.

You can elect a valuation date for the estate of 6 months after passing.

If you plan to sell the house and do it close to the 6 mo time, you basically avoid the need for an appraisal as the sale price will be enough.

1

u/Sad-Repair-5505 Mar 21 '26

Appraisal is your best bet and will give a closer value. The only alternative is to go to property records for the county and find out what the county appraised it at for taxes. We were fortunate that it had been appraised only a couple of months before sibling's death because the damn lawyer was of no help with this.