North Hollywood Inheritance Appraisals — Independent Date-of-Death Valuations for Heirs
You have received a family home. Before anything else is decided, it helps to know what it was worth on the date that governs — because that figure is what a future sale, a tax return, or a buyout between siblings will be measured against.
Developed under USPAP for heirs, beneficiaries, executors, and the attorneys and CPAs who advise them. We establish the value and show the reasoning. We do not tell you what you will owe, and we do not tell you whether to sell.
Scope and fee confirmed in writing before any work begins · the guide is a preparation checklist, not a market report
Understanding the Assignment
One Number, and Everything That Comes After It
Inheriting a house is something most people do once, usually without warning, and often alongside siblings they now share an asset with. An appraisal removes one variable from that: it establishes what the property was worth on the date that governs, with the reasoning written down.
For inherited property that date is almost always the date of death. Internal Revenue Code section 1014(a)(1) sets the basis of property acquired from a decedent at its fair market value on that date. That single figure is what a future sale is measured against, what a co-heir buyout is priced from, and what feeds the Proposition 19 comparison at the County Assessor. Confirm the governing date with your CPA before the appraisal is ordered — changing it afterwards usually means a new assignment rather than an amendment.
Representative Situations
Three Situations We Are Usually Called Into
These are representative situations, not customer accounts. They are written to help you recognise your own position quickly. Nothing below is a testimonial, and none of it describes a specific client.
Standards We Work To
What You Can Rely On, and What We Do Not Claim
Most people inherit a home once. The figure in this report may sit on a tax return years from now, or settle what one sibling pays another. It is built to be read closely, and to hold up when it is.
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USPAP-compliant reporting
Developed under the Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice, so you, your CPA, or a co-heir can follow the reasoning rather than accept a number on faith.
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Effective-date discipline
The governing date is confirmed in writing before analysis begins and stated plainly in the report. For inherited property that date is usually in the past, and that is ordinary work here.
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Independence and impartiality
The analysis is not adjusted to suit any heir, any pending sale, or whoever engages us. Where several people share a property, that independence is the point of the exercise.
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Retrospective assignments
Value as of a past date, developed from the evidence that existed then rather than today’s market. Supported by records, permit history, prior listings, and the sales closing around that date.
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Local property complexity
Comparable selection reflects the actual property — accessory dwelling units, converted garages, permit status, condition on the effective date — rather than a neighbourhood average.
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Confidentiality
Assignment information and completed reports go to the client named in the engagement and to the parties you authorise, and nobody else. Access is coordinated discreetly.
A note on scope
This page is general information, not legal or tax advice. We describe what our reports are prepared to support, and we are careful about what we do not claim.
We do not claim guaranteed court or IRS acceptance of any appraisal. We do not calculate what you will owe on a sale, we do not advise whether to sell or keep an inherited property, and we do not determine whether any tax exclusion, election, or Proposition 19 claim is available to you. We do not represent that an appraisal resolves disagreement among co-heirs.
What we do is establish a supportable opinion of value as of the date that governs, with the reasoning written down. Ask your attorney or CPA what your situation requires. We will tell you plainly what our report can and cannot support before you engage us.
The WCE Difference
A Consortium of Appraisers, Not a Single Desk
West Coast Evaluation is built as a consortium of appraisers rather than one practitioner taking every assignment that arrives. Inherited-property work is matched to appraisers with relevant experience in the property type and the market involved — a Valley Village condominium, a Lankershim-corridor 2–4 unit building, and a single-family home with a converted garage are genuinely different assignments.
That structure exists to serve one purpose: a report read by you, by your CPA, and possibly by a sibling who did not choose the appraiser should reflect someone who has actually valued that kind of property in that kind of market, and it should read the same way every time.
About West Coast Evaluation-
Assignment Matching
Work is routed by property type and market familiarity rather than by whoever is free.
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Retrospective Experience
Date-of-death assignments depend on evidence that is no longer in front of you. The consortium carries appraisers who work with historical listing records, permit history, and public records routinely rather than occasionally.
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Professional Review
Reports move through quality review before delivery, so the reasoning and supporting data are checked before a CPA or a co-heir sees them.
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Consistent Standards
The same documented WCE standards apply across every city and service page, so a North Hollywood inheritance report is structured like a Burbank, Glendale, or Pasadena one.
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Breadth of Local Experience
Across the consortium, WCE maintains active inheritance, estate, and trust valuation coverage throughout the San Fernando Valley and greater Los Angeles County.
The Process
Six Steps, With Scope and Fee Confirmed Before Any Work Begins
Most people do this once, and usually without much warning. Nothing starts until the effective date and the intended use are settled in writing, because that single step prevents most of the rework that happens in inherited-property assignments.
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Initial consultation to determine the assignment and intended use
We identify the property, what the report is for, and who the client is. That may be one heir, several heirs jointly, the estate or trust, or an attorney or CPA engaging on your behalf. The governing effective date is confirmed at this stage, and scope, fee and delivery window are put in writing before any work begins. If you are not sure which date governs, bring your CPA into this conversation — it is the one question worth settling first.
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Scheduling the inspection at a convenient time
We coordinate around whoever is there. Inherited properties are commonly occupied by a surviving parent, an heir, a tenant, or nobody at all, and each of those is an ordinary assignment variable rather than an obstacle. Where several heirs are involved, one point of contact for access usually keeps things simplest.
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A thorough on-site inspection
Layout, condition, and every part of the improved area — including accessory dwelling units, converted garages and additions, whatever their permit status. Where the effective date is in the past, we record what is there now and reconcile it against what the evidence shows was there then.
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Research of comparable sales and relevant market data
Sales are selected from the market as it stood on the effective date, not today’s. Adjustments reflect the actual property rather than a neighbourhood average, and the reasoning behind each one is written down rather than assumed.
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Development of a USPAP-compliant appraisal report
The report states the effective date, the intended use, the data relied on, and how the conclusion was reached. It is built to be read closely by a CPA, an attorney, or a co-heir who wants to understand the figure rather than simply accept it.
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Secure delivery to the client identified in the engagement
The completed report goes to the client named in the engagement agreement and to anyone you have authorised, and nobody else. We remain available for follow-up questions on the file afterwards, which matters when a report is read months later by an advisor who was not part of the original conversation.
Frequently Asked Questions
North Hollywood Inheritance Appraisal Questions
Answers first. Several of these involve tax and legal rules, so we describe how the rule works and then point you to your CPA or attorney for what it means in your situation. We do not calculate what you will owe and we do not advise you whether to sell.
What is an inheritance appraisal, and what does it establish for a North Hollywood property?
It is an independent opinion of the fair market value of inherited real property as of the date that governs your matter — in most cases the date the previous owner died.
That date matters because Internal Revenue Code section 1014(a)(1) sets the basis of property acquired from a decedent at its fair market value on the date of death. Fair market value has a specific meaning here: Treasury Regulation section 20.2031-1(b) defines it as the price the property would change hands for between a willing buyer and a willing seller, neither under compulsion and both reasonably informed. It is expressly not a forced-sale price.
The report is developed under USPAP so your CPA, your attorney, and your co-heirs can follow the reasoning rather than accept a number on faith. Practically, it is the figure a future sale gets measured against.
What will I owe in capital gains if I sell the house I inherited?
We cannot tell you the amount, and anyone who quotes you one without seeing your return is guessing. What we can tell you is how the figure is built.
Your gain is broadly the sale price, less selling costs, less your basis. Because section 1014(a)(1) resets basis to fair market value at the date of death, the gain is measured from that reset figure — not from what the original owner paid decades ago. On a long-held North Hollywood property that difference is usually the largest single number in the calculation.
This is exactly why a supportable date-of-death value matters. A well-documented figure gives your CPA something defensible to work from. An estimate pulled from an online valuation tool does not. Take the report to your CPA; the rate, the return, and the final number are theirs.
I am selling within a few months of the death. Is that a short-term gain?
No. Internal Revenue Code section 1223(9) provides that where you acquire property from a decedent, your basis is determined under section 1014, and you sell within one year of the death, you are treated as having held the property for more than one year.
A quick sale after inheriting does not become short-term simply because it was quick. This is one of the most common misunderstandings we hear, and it changes how people think about timing. Confirm the application with your CPA.
Can I use the $250,000 home sale exclusion on a house I inherited?
Usually not, and this catches people out.
Internal Revenue Code section 121(a) excludes gain only where, during the five-year period ending on the date of sale, you owned and used the property as your own principal residence for periods totalling at least two years. Section 121(b)(1) caps the exclusion at $250,000, and section 121(b)(2)(A) allows $500,000 on certain joint returns.
Inheriting a home does not confer that history. If you never lived in the property as your principal residence for the required period, the exclusion is not available to you on that sale.
The step-up in basis under section 1014 often does more work than the exclusion would have, since it resets the figure your gain is measured from. Whether that is true in your case is a question for your CPA, and it is one worth asking before you decide when to sell.
Does California charge an inheritance tax or an estate tax?
California has no inheritance tax. Part 8 of the Revenue and Taxation Code is headed “Prohibition of Gift and Death Taxes” and was added by initiative in 1982.
Section 13302 imposes a California estate tax only in an amount equal to the federal Credit for State Death Taxes attributable to California property, and caps it so that the combined state and federal liability can never exceed what would have been owed to the United States alone. It is a pick-up provision, not an independent tax.
Federal estate tax is a separate question and applies to very few estates: the Internal Revenue Service filing threshold for deaths in 2026 is $15,000,000. Property tax is different again and is dealt with in the next answer but one. Confirm all of it with your CPA.
My siblings and I inherited the house together and we do not agree. What happens?
Co-heirs commonly hold inherited property as tenants in common, and any co-owner may bring a partition action under Code of Civil Procedure section 872.210(a)(2). Most people never want to get there, but it is worth knowing what the process actually does, because valuation sits at the centre of it.
For tenancy-in-common property with no agreement binding all co-owners, in actions filed on or after 1 January 2023, the Partition of Real Property Act applies and section 874.313(a) makes it mandatory. Under section 874.316 the court determines fair market value by ordering an appraisal by a disinterested appraiser licensed in California, valuing the property as though it were held in sole ownership, with the appraisal filed under oath and open to objection.
Section 874.317 then gives co-owners who did not ask for a sale forty-five days to buy out those who did, at the value the court determined multiplied by each selling co-owner’s fractional share. In other words, the appraised figure becomes the buyout price.
An appraisal ordered under section 874.316 is one the court commissions. A report you obtain privately is not a substitute for it, and it does not bind anyone. What it does is let co-heirs negotiate from a documented, independent figure before a filing is made. Whether partition applies to your situation is a legal question for your attorney.
Will my property taxes go up now that I have inherited a North Hollywood home?
Possibly, and the date of death is the trigger. The California State Board of Equalization treats the date of death as the date of change in ownership, and the law in effect on that date applies.
Under current law the parent-child exclusion is limited to a family home that was the transferor’s principal residence and becomes the transferee’s principal residence, or to a family farm. It carries a value limit of the current taxable value plus $1,000,000 as biennially adjusted — $1,044,586 for transfers between 16 February 2025 and 15 February 2027. Where market value exceeds that limit, the excess is added to the factored base year value.
There is also a deadline that is easy to miss: at least one eligible transferee must live in the residence and apply for the homeowners’ or disabled veterans’ exemption within one year of the transfer.
This matters more in North Hollywood than in newer markets. Properties here are frequently held for decades, which produces a wide gap between the factored base year value and today’s market value — and that gap is what decides whether a transfer stays inside the limit. Take the numbers to the Los Angeles County Assessor and your advisor.
We inherited years ago and never got an appraisal. Is it too late?
No. A retrospective appraisal establishes value as of a past effective date, developed from the market evidence that existed as of that date rather than from today’s market.
It can be done even where the property has since been sold, cleared out, renovated, or demolished. The analysis is supported by records, photographs, permit history, prior listings, and the sales that were closing around the effective date. Tell us what is missing rather than guessing at it — gaps rarely stop an assignment, they change how the value is supported.
One caution: a report obtained now does not undo a return already filed. If something has already been reported on a figure you are unsure about, raise it with your CPA before ordering, so the assignment is set up to be useful to them.
How are North Hollywood ADUs, converted garages, condominiums, and 2–4 unit properties handled?
Added living area is the dominant local complication. North Hollywood carries a high incidence of accessory dwelling units, converted garages, and additions of varying permit status.
Unpermitted area is neither ignored nor treated as permitted space by default. What gets reflected is the contribution the market actually recognises, stated with the reasoning shown. Condominiums turn on HOA structure, parking, and floor location; 2–4 unit properties carry income characteristics that a single-family analysis would miss.
For an heir this figure carries weight twice over — once as the basis a future sale is measured against, and again as the market value that determines whether a parent-child transfer stays inside the Proposition 19 limit.
How long does it take, and who pays when several of us inherited the property?
Timing and fee are quoted per assignment and confirmed in writing before any work begins. The variables are property type and complexity, how far in the past the effective date sits, access and occupancy, what documentation survives, and whether multiple units or added living areas are involved.
On who pays: the engagement agreement identifies the client. That may be one heir, several heirs jointly, the estate or trust, or an attorney or CPA engaging on your behalf. How the cost is shared between co-heirs is a matter between you.
Tell us at the outset who the client is, because it determines who we are able to discuss the report with. Where several heirs want to rely on the same figure, naming them jointly at engagement avoids an awkward conversation later.
How It Works
From First Call to Delivered Report
Most people inherit a home once, and nobody rehearses for it. Here is the shape of the engagement from your side of it, and the kinds of decisions an appraisal is usually built to support.
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Step 1
You get in touch
Tell us the address, roughly when the property was inherited, and what the report is for. You do not need the paperwork in front of you to start the conversation.
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Step 2
We confirm scope in writing
Effective date, intended use, who the client is, fee and delivery window. Where several heirs share the property, we settle at this stage who is named and who receives the report.
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Step 3
We inspect the property
Scheduled around whoever is living there, or around access if nobody is. Added living areas and converted space are measured and recorded rather than assumed.
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Step 4
We develop the value
Comparable sales drawn from the market as it stood on the effective date, with the reasoning for each adjustment written down rather than left implied.
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Step 5
You receive the report
Delivered securely to you and anyone you authorise. We stay available afterwards, which matters when your CPA reads it months later.
What These Appraisals Are Usually Built to Support
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Basis for a future sale
The date-of-death value is the figure a later gain is measured against. Establishing it properly now is easier than reconstructing it under deadline.
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Documentation for a return
Where your CPA has asked for a supported value as of a specific date, with the reasoning attached rather than a bare number.
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Buyout between co-heirs
Where one heir is buying out the others and everyone needs a figure that none of them chose.
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Proposition 19 planning support
Where market value on the date of death feeds the parent-child value limit, and you and your advisor need to see where the property sits against it.
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Retrospective valuation
Where the property was inherited some time ago and no appraisal was obtained at the time. This is ordinary work, not a special case.
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Evidence in a partition matter
Where co-owners are in disagreement and their attorneys want an independent figure to work from. A privately obtained report is not a court-ordered appraisal and does not replace one.
If Your Situation Is Different
This page is written for heirs and beneficiaries — people who have received a property and are working out what it was worth and what happens next. If you are administering an estate rather than inheriting from one, or one of the pages below fits your situation better, start there instead. We would rather send you to the right page than sell you the wrong assignment.
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North Hollywood Trust & Estate Appraisal
If you are the successor trustee or executor running the administration, rather than an heir receiving from it, that page is written for your side of the process.
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North Hollywood Probate Appraisal
Where the estate is court-supervised and the inventory and appraisal process applies.
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North Hollywood Divorce Appraisal
Where a marital or community property interest is being divided between spouses.
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North Hollywood Residential Appraisal
General residential valuation where no estate, trust or family law matter is involved.
Service Area
North Hollywood Is Not One Market
Los Angeles City Planning places North Hollywood within the North Hollywood–Valley Village Community Plan area, which also takes in Valley Village and Valley Glen and contains multiple overlays and districts.
Lower-density residential streets sit alongside condominium and townhome development, apartment and 2–4 unit buildings, and transit-oriented corridors along Lankershim Boulevard. For an inherited property that variety is the whole difficulty. A neighbourhood average is not an answer, and where the figure will support a future gain calculation or a Proposition 19 comparison, the comparable set has to be chosen for the specific property.
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NoHo Arts District
Mixed-use and higher-density context near the transit corridor.
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Mid-Town North Hollywood
Established residential streets with a high incidence of added living area.
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Northeast North Hollywood
Single-family stock adjacent to denser multifamily zoning.
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North Hollywood West
Post-war tract character with long-tenure ownership, which is where the largest basis gaps sit.
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Valley Village
Within the same Community Plan area, with its own specific plan.
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Valley Glen
Also within the Community Plan area, with distinct residential character.
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Toluca Lake adjacency
Boundary conditions where adjacent-market evidence needs care.
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Lankershim corridor
Transit-oriented parcels where zoning context affects value.
Beyond North Hollywood
The consortium covers inheritance, estate and trust assignments throughout the San Fernando Valley and greater Los Angeles County, including Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena, Hollywood, West Hollywood, and the Westside.
Appraisers travel to the property. If the property you inherited sits outside this area, ask and we will tell you plainly whether we can take the assignment.
Further Reading
Before You Engage Anyone
Three pieces worth reading if you have inherited a property and are working out what you actually need.
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What actually happens to heirs
When the Free House Isn’t So Free
Real accounts of what people ran into after inheriting a home — the costs, the co-owners, and the decisions nobody warned them about.
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Valuing a date in the past
Retrospective Appraisals
How one date from the past is established from the evidence that existed then. Directly relevant if you inherited some time ago and never had the property valued.
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Getting ready
Estate Appraisal Preparation Guide
What to gather before the inspection, what genuinely helps, and what you can leave alone. Missing records rarely stop an assignment.
North Hollywood Inheritance Appraisal
Start With the Date, and We Will Take It From There
Tell us the property, roughly when it was inherited, and who needs to receive the report. We confirm scope, fee, and timing in writing before any work starts.
Prepared for heirs, beneficiaries, executors, and the attorneys and CPAs who advise them.
Secure request form · no obligation · scope and fee confirmed in writing first
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Independent and impartial valuation
developed the same way whoever engages us, which is the point when several heirs share a property
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A clearly documented effective date
usually the date of death, and often a date in the past
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Written for you and for your CPA
with the reasoning shown, not just the number
Not ready to submit the form? You can open our preparation guide to see what to have ready, or call to discuss the property first.
(310) 955-1147Clear Scope. Local Evidence. A Value Conclusion You Can Understand.
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