Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California

Each of the five children has a 1/5 interest. If one of them wants to buy out, he or she must pay the others. You can get the house appraised to see how much value change there is since the death of the decedent. You have divide the property based on today's value, regardless whether it is increased or decreased.

I disagree with the prior answer in that so long as the estate creditors are paid the heirs may agree on the value and the terms of any buy-out. The buy-out may occur during the probate or after distribution.

Note that the sibling who buys out the others will get reassessed (for purposes of property taxes) on 4/5 of the value of the house.

Unfortunately, because the gross value of the house exceeds $100,000, probate has to be fild. I have the impression that that has not occured. The adminisrator of the estate can be any one of you or even more than one person. As soon as you file the form notifying the county of the death, they will start the re-assessment process. When the four of you sell to the fifth there could be another reassessment but prices have not gone up so that should make little difference. There may be tax considerations; do any of the silings need deductions for mortgage interest payments, do not want a large sumof money now so an installent sale or lease option to buy might be better? It is easier to deal with creditors in probate; if they are not handled, the debts will not disappear.

It seems no one but me wanted to read your question and answer what you actually asked. The answer to your question is that the property can be valued in any way all five can agree. There is no law requiring or prohibiting anything about that.