Legal Question in Real Estate Law in California

I can see relatively minor roles here for several different specialists.

First, if you know a real estate professional you trust, you might ask for his or her assistance in preparing documents for a small fee.

Next, even though the tax, etc. consequences may not be that great since you are (I assume) paying something near market value, it wouldn't hurt to get paid advice from a family wealth planner/tax advisor on possible ways to accomplish family objectives with minimum tax impacts.

It may be worth while to ask one or the other or both of the above professionals for tips on how to make the transaction fall within the arms-length guidelines.

Finally, I would suggest considering using an escrow and getting title insurance; the escrow and title people can review and/or prepare the documents and handle closing and recording.

In other words, it's much like a transaction between strangers, except you don't need to pay a standard commission for marketing the property, but you do need to be assured that this proposed deal maximizes overall after-tax benefits to the family as a whole.

You could also use a lawyer to handle any or all aspects, except lawyers don't usually sell title insurance!

Mr. Whipple generally gives good advice, but misses some key issues this time around. Most significant is that if your parents sell to you at market value, you may trigger a reassessment for property tax, and even if you can avoid that (probably can with some legal help) you will reset your capital gains basis early as compared to inheriting it later. Ifyou do not pay full market value then you may trigger gift tax. In short, there are big tax consequences that should be managed and optimized here, and a sale to you and your wife may be quite far from the ideal way to do this. Some variation of placing it in a trust is FAR more likely to give you the results you and your parents want to accomplish, with much better tax treatment. Give me a call or send me an email if you would like to discuss your options.