Trust sales in La Jolla: steps for the person in charge (successor trustee)

What a trust sale means

On this site, a trust sale means the steps for selling a home that a trust owns. This guide covers:

• What a trust and a living trust are
• What a trustee and a successor trustee do
• How a home in a trust relates to probate
• Which disclosure forms may not apply, per the DRE (California Department of Real Estate)
• The steps to list a La Jolla home held in a trust
• How it fits with inherited home & Prop 19, seller prep, guides and La Jolla

The main sources are DRE consumer guides, the California Courts Self-Help Guide and San Diego Superior Court pages. They do not replace advice on your own trust or taxes.

Living trusts and probate

The Self-Help Guide says a trust is when property is given to one person to hold for the good of another. A living trust is a trust set up during a person’s life to pass on money or property.

The San Diego Superior Court adds these points:

• A trust takes effect while the person who made it is alive.
• A trust avoids probate for assets held in the trust’s name.
• Its terms are usually shared with the beneficiaries (the people who receive the property) when the trust becomes irrevocable, meaning it can no longer be changed. That is often when its maker dies.
• A will can also create a trust, called a testamentary trust.
• Trusts are not filed or registered with the Court.

The Self-Help Guide also lists property in a living trust as one kind of property that may pass without a full probate case. Ask your lawyer which path applies to you.

Trustee and successor trustee

Court pages say a trust holds property for its beneficiaries. When the maker dies, the terms usually become final. Then a successor trustee (the person named in the trust to take over) usually manages the trust’s property, including a home.

• The right to list and sell the home usually runs through the trustee or successor trustee. Your lawyer confirms this from the trust papers.
• There is no one required timeline. The trust papers and your lawyer set the pace.
• Ask your lawyer about the trustee’s duties, notices to beneficiaries and any court steps.

Disclosure forms in a trust sale (DRE RE 6)

The DRE booklet Disclosures in Real Property Transactions (RE 6) lists some sales as exempt from the TDS rules it describes. The TDS (Transfer Disclosure Statement) is the seller’s form about the home’s condition. One exempt group is a sale by a fiduciary (a person trusted to manage property for others) who is handling a trust, an estate, a guardianship or a conservatorship. The exemption does not apply if the trustee once owned the home.

Ask your lawyer which disclosures apply to your trust sale. The DRE says it cannot give legal advice.

Listing a La Jolla home from a trust

When a La Jolla or coastal San Diego home is held in a living trust or another trust, the sale runs on a real estate track. It sits beside the legal work of running the trust:

• The right to list and sell usually runs through the trustee or successor trustee, as your lawyer confirms.
• Prop 19 and county property tax questions for inherited family homes are on inherited home & Prop 19. Prop 19 is a state law on property tax for homes passed to children.
• Getting the home ready to list is on seller prep.

Check the trustee’s authority, the trust terms, disclosures, title and deed steps and any tax questions with your lawyer or a tax adviser. Weston handles the listing and sale once the ownership and legal questions are clear enough to move.