How does selling an apartment building through probate work in Los Angeles?
It depends on the authority the court grants. With full authority under the Independent Administration of Estates Act (IAEA), the executor or administrator can sell the building much like a normal sale — heirs get a 15-day Notice of Proposed Action, but no court hearing is required. With limited authority, the sale must be confirmed in court: the accepted offer goes to a hearing where anyone can overbid, the price must be at least 90% of the probate referee's appraised value, and buyers typically waive contingencies. Buyers price those two paths very differently.
IAEA authority versus court confirmation.
Full IAEA authority is the clean path — the personal representative signs the listing, negotiates, and closes on a near-normal timeline, and the building trades at close to its ordinary market value. Court confirmation is the slow path: after an offer is accepted, the hearing gets calendared weeks out, and at the hearing any overbidder can top the price using a statutory formula (the accepted price plus 10% of the first $10,000 plus 5% of the remainder). Confirmation sales are as-is, typically non-contingent, with a cashier's-check deposit — so the buyer pool shrinks to investors who can wear that risk, and they discount for it. If the estate can get full authority, get it.
Timelines and how buyers underwrite them.
LA County probates commonly run nine to eighteen months end to end, but the building can sell well before the estate closes — Letters Testamentary or Letters of Administration are what a title company needs, not a finished probate. Buyers underwrite probate deals on three questions: which authority applies, whether the rent roll and RSO registration are documented (estates are notorious for informal rents), and whether the heirs are aligned. A probate sale with full authority, a clean rent roll, and a probate referee appraisal in hand trades like a normal deal. One with limited authority and feuding beneficiaries trades at a discount that usually costs the estate more than getting organized would have.
Does every inherited building have to go through probate?
No. Property held in a living trust passes outside probate entirely, and property held in joint tenancy passes to the survivor. Probate applies when the building was titled in the decedent's individual name without a trust.
Who has the power to sign a listing agreement in probate?
The court-appointed personal representative — the executor named in the will or the administrator appointed without one — once Letters have been issued. Heirs cannot sign until then.
Can a probate sale be overbid at the courthouse?
Only in a court-confirmation sale. At the hearing, a qualified overbidder can top the accepted offer using the statutory formula, and bidding continues until the court confirms the highest bid. Full-authority IAEA sales skip this entirely.
SHAYA LOWENSTEIN · LYON STAHL INVESTMENT REAL ESTATE · DRE #01942326 · (323) 944-2221