Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

Estate / Inheritance

My great aunt is passing away and has left her fully-paid off house to a family friend. The friend, who lives in MD, has offered to sell me the house. I currently rent an apartment and would not qualify for a loan for the $775K house outright so she has offered to work out a lease-to-own option that is affordable for me. My question is, would it be beneficial for us to put my name on the title prior to my aunt's death (for tax or other reasons)? We currently have not worked out the price or any details surrounding the transfer and I have not seen a copy of the will, although I am pretty sure everything goes to the family friend (which is probably no more than $1M in total value). Basically I want to know if we can sit on this or if there is any advantage to making a quick decision now (ie. avoid inheritance or property tax). The second part of my question is what are the options for this deal? Re-financing, land-contract term, lease with option to buy, etc. I need to educate myself and want a list of potential routes to start my search. Thank you.


Asked on 3/07/08, 2:15 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Mitchell Roth MW Roth, Professional Law Corporation

Re: Estate / Inheritance

Absolutely not. For more insight you may want to get my a free download of my Special Report, The 7 Most Common Mistakes Made by the Middle Class in Planning For the Inevitability of Death and the Likelihood of Disability, and How to Avoid Them." You can get it at my site, www.IWant2CreateMyLegacy.com. You should probably also get my book, Create Your Legacy & Save the American Middle Class. It contains the information that I developed for lay audiences in hundreds of seminars to thousands of people. It will answer nearly all of your questions about how to protect a family from the financial catastrophe that can often accompany the inevitabilty of death and the likelihood of disability. Both are terribly important. A lot of people don't realize that conservatorship is the fastest growing lawsuit in America and the average conservatorship lasts 3 years today. That is because medicine has gotten better and better at keeping us "alive" ofen under the worst circumstances.

The book contains a copy of the "LEGACY LIVING TRUST PACKAGE". It is, as far as I know, the only complete living trust planning package written in what I call "people ease" rather than legalese. Anyone reading at a 10th grade level should be able complete the package themselves with the information in the book. It is designed to be valid in all 50 states and even contains forms for making amendments when the desire to do so appears.

The book is $29.95. About the cost of a six minute consultation with me personally. One can download the trust package for $79.95. For more info or to buy the book, go to www.IWant2CreateMyLegacy.com.

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Answered on 3/07/08, 3:40 pm


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