On this page
Who should read the guide?
It is written for the personal representative of a California estate that owns an apartment building, and for the estate attorney working beside that person. It assumes you have never sold property through a court. Each step of the sale is set out in the order it arrives, with what the step is for and the statute, form or court page behind it, so you know what to expect before you walk into a hearing.
The subjects are the ones a building raises in probate:
- whether the building needs probate at all, which turns on how title was held
- who can sign for the estate, and full or limited authority
- the confirmation hearing and its overbids
- the timeline from death to closing
- the tenants and rent rules that stay with the building
- the referee's appraisal and the fees
- what happens when an heir or the executor wants to buy
Where do the rules come from?
Every rule on the site is traced to the statute, court rule or agency page it comes from, and the page links that source where you are likely to want to read it. For the Probate Code and the other California codes, the source is the code text itself. For forms and procedure it is the Judicial Council's forms and rules and the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles. For the building's own rules it is the Los Angeles Housing Department, the Board of Equalization and the other agencies that administer them. A law firm's article may describe how a step runs in practice, and it is never the only support for what the law requires.
Behind every page is a set of research notes with one line per claim. Each statement of law, each deadline and each dollar figure is recorded with its source, and anything that could not be traced to one was left out rather than written from memory. Figures that change over time come with the period they apply to, like the small-estate ceilings for deaths on or after April 1, 2025. Worked examples use made-up numbers, and each one says so.
You will not find market statistics, typical commissions or average timelines here, because no source the guide could cite supports them. Where the answer depends on your estate, the page says who decides.
How do you know a page is current?
A page is reviewed when a law it cites changes. The Judicial Council adjusts the small-estate ceilings every three years, for example, so those figures move when the Council's table does. The date under every page's heading is the day that page last changed, and it moves only when what the page says changes.
If a rule looks out of date to you, check it against the source the page cites, and tell Shaya through the form on any page.
Who is the author?
The guide's author is Shaya Lowenstein, whose title is Multifamily Real Estate Advisor and whose responsible broker is Lyon Stahl Investment Real Estate. His California real estate license is DRE #01942326, and anyone can confirm it through the Department of Real Estate's public lookup.
Since 2011 he has worked in brokerage, in operations and in development. The properties he focuses on are Southern California apartment buildings and land, and within that his work covers long-term portfolio planning, land use and zoning analysis, and value-add and repositioning, for owners, investors and developers.
What does Shaya do for an estate?
He lists and sells the building. For an estate that means pricing it from its rents and condition, assembling the rent roll and lease records buyers ask for, marketing it publicly or quietly to buyers he finds himself, and presenting offers in a form the estate's attorney can use, and the court too if the sale goes there. He does not buy property for himself, from an estate or from anyone else.
Shaya is neither an attorney nor a CPA, so he gives no legal or tax advice. The petition, the notices, any objection and the estate's tax returns belong to the attorney and the accountant, and Shaya works alongside them on the building.