Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

There is no good way to do that due to the tax consequences. They and your wife would be FAR better off putting it in a trust with her as the beneficiary when the second parent passes away. Otherwise, whenever the house is sold, she will have to pay capital gains tax on the entire increase in value from when they bought the house. If she receives it through a trust, the basis resets to the market value when they have both passed away. So capital gains tax is only charged on the increase in value after that date. State and Federal capital gains taxes amount to over 25%. That usually winds up being tens of thousands of dollars, sometimes even six figures depending on the value of the property.