An estate or trust is in administration. Property is being managed, distributed, or liquidated. You're advising beneficiaries, trustees, or heirs on what comes next. But the property baseline was never established. You're working from a deed, assumptions about value, and estimates of tax basis. By the time you discover what's actually there—title issues, unpermitted work, carried debt, hidden properties—beneficiaries have already made decisions from incomplete information.
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Inheritance
An estate is in administration. Someone died. The baseline needs to be established before anyone distributes, sells, or claims the inheritance.
The Gap
Flags It Catches
- Title issues (unpermitted work, code violations, liens, easements, HOA violations)
- Debt nobody knew about (mortgage, reverse mortgage balance, liens)
- Undisclosed properties in other jurisdictions
- Basis misstatement (creating surprise capital gains liability)
- Carrying costs exceed estate resources
- Relational disagreement among beneficiaries about what should happen
- Reverse mortgage balance due at death (not just the recorded loan amount)
What the Baseline Enables
Complete clarity before anyone distributes or sells. Legal structure (deed, trust language, clear title, beneficiary designation). Financial reality (all carried debt, carrying costs, income if any, reverse mortgage actual balance). Tax implications (basis, stepped-up value, capital gains scenarios, cost to liquidate). Market signal (what a buyer would pay, what it would cost to prepare for sale). Physical condition (repairs needed, what's urgent, what's optional). Relational clarity (whether beneficiaries align on what happens next, or whether buried disagreement is about to surface).
With this baseline, distribution and sale decisions are sound. Beneficiaries know what they're inheriting. Tax liability is understood. Relational conflict is surfaced before it breaks families.