Date of Death Appraisals in Sacramento: Commercial Property, Farmland and Apartments in Estates and Trusts

Sacramento-area families hold all kinds of real estate in trusts: an older apartment building in Midtown or Arden-Arcade, a small industrial building in Rancho Cordova or West Sacramento, a strip center in Elk Grove or Citrus Heights, an office building downtown, farmland in Yolo County or along the Delta near Isleton. When the owner dies, the first number the trustee, the executor and the CPA all need is what each property was worth on the date of death. Our statewide guide to date-of-death appraisals covers the basics, and our commercial property appraisal page covers how a commercial report is built. This page covers what is different when the property is in the Sacramento region.

When does a Sacramento estate or trust need a date-of-death appraisal?

Most of the time when the property is commercial, agricultural or income-producing. Common reasons:

• Stepped-up basis. Under Internal Revenue Code Section 1014(a), property acquired from a decedent generally takes a basis equal to its fair market value at the date of death. Section 1014(b)(6) also covers the surviving spouse’s half of California community property, if at least half of the community interest was includible in the decedent’s gross estate. When the property is later sold, the CPA needs a supported number.
• Estate tax returns. For larger estates, the value of each property goes on the return. Under Section 2032, the executor can elect to value the estate as of six months after death instead, but only if the election lowers both the gross estate and the tax. That can mean two values for the same property.
• Trust administration. A successor trustee dividing or selling property needs values to treat beneficiaries fairly and to report to them. See trust administration appraisals.
• Equalizing shares. One child keeps the farm, another takes the apartment building and a third takes cash. A value for every property, on the same date, is what makes that split fair.
• Prop 19 and property tax. Reassessment, the family farm exclusion and any appeal of the new value all turn on what the property was worth on the date of death (see below).
• Disputes. Heirs, trustees and creditors sometimes disagree about value. An independent, well-supported report keeps the conversation on the evidence.

General information, not legal or tax advice. Your attorney or CPA decides which values you need.

Where are Sacramento probate cases heard?

Sacramento Superior Court’s Family Law and Probate Divisions are at the William R. Ridgeway Family Relations Courthouse, 3341 Power Inn Road, Sacramento. Civil cases, including most real estate disputes between heirs or partners, are heard at the Gordon D. Schaber Sacramento County Courthouse at 720 9th Street. The court offers probate e-filing and posts probate notes online. If the decedent lived in Placer, El Dorado or Yolo County, the probate is normally filed in that county’s superior court instead.

In a formal probate, the personal representative must file an inventory and appraisal within four months after letters are first issued, unless the court allows more time (Probate Code Section 8800). Under Section 8902, the court-appointed probate referee appraises the inventory property the personal representative does not. That is the court’s inventory value, and it serves a different purpose than a private narrative appraisal. We do not act as a probate referee. We provide independent appraisals to trustees, executors, heirs and their attorneys and CPAs.

Many Sacramento estates never see a courtroom because the property was held in a living trust. Then there is no referee, and the successor trustee needs values on their own.

Does each farm parcel need its own value under Prop 19?

Often, yes. The Sacramento region is ringed by farmland: rice and row crops in Yolo County and the Natomas Basin, orchards and vineyards in the Delta and the foothills, and pasture in Placer and El Dorado counties. Many family farms are made up of several legal parcels.

The State Board of Equalization explains that for transfers on or after February 16, 2021, Prop 19 limits the parent-child exclusion to a family home or family farm, with a value limit, and eliminates it for other real property. For farms, Revenue and Taxation Code Section 63.2 says the exclusion applies separately to each legal parcel that makes up a family farm, and each parcel is treated as its own family farm (except a parcel containing the family home). A family farm means real property under cultivation, used for pasture or grazing, or used to produce an agricultural commodity. The value limit is measured against each parcel’s fair market value at the transfer, so a farm spread over three parcels may need three values, each as of the date of death. See farm and ranch appraisals with several parcels.

Farmland here is often under a Williamson Act contract, where the owner commits the land to agricultural use for at least 20 years in exchange for lower property taxes. A contract that was in force on the date of death limits what a buyer could do with the land, and the appraisal has to account for it.

An inherited apartment building, retail center or industrial building generally gets a new base year value from the county assessor. Under Revenue and Taxation Code Section 480, the change in ownership statement for a death (BOE-502-D) is due within 150 days after the date of death, or, if the estate is probated, when the inventory and appraisal is filed. If the decedent owned property in other counties too, Probate Code Section 8800 requires a certification that the statement was filed in each county. If the new value looks too high, a supported date-of-death appraisal is the evidence for an appeal. For 2026, the State Board of Equalization lists November 30, 2026 as the end of the regular assessment appeal filing period in Sacramento, El Dorado and Yolo counties, and September 15, 2026 in Placer County. See property tax appeal appraisals.

General information, not legal or tax advice. Confirm how Prop 19 applies, and your deadlines, with your attorney, your CPA or the Assessment Appeals Board.

What Sacramento issues change a value as of the date of death?

A date-of-death appraisal has to read the property as it was on that date. In the Sacramento region, these come up again and again:

• The City of Sacramento rent cap. The city’s Tenant Protection Program, Sacramento City Code Chapter 5.156, limits annual rent increases on covered rental units to 5% plus the change in the California CPI, and rent cannot be raised more than once every 12 months. The city set the maximum at 8.6% effective July 1, 2026, based on an April 2026 CPI of 3.6%, and the cap changes every July. For an apartment building in the city, the cap in effect on the date of death, and how far the in-place rents sat below market, shape the income and the value. Outside the city, most rent increase limits come from state law in Civil Code Section 1947.12.
• The Natomas flood zone. The City of Sacramento says that as of June 16, 2015, Natomas has an A99 flood zone designation, an interim designation that is still considered high risk but allows construction. Owners with a federally backed mortgage still need flood insurance, and the Army Corps of Engineers expects levee improvements to continue until 2030. A date of death before 2015, during the levee work or after it can mean a different set of rules and costs for the same parcel.
• The Delta. Isleton and the farmland around it sit in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, where the Delta Protection Act of 1992 sets primary and secondary zones and a land use plan that limits what can be built. For Delta farms and marinas, that is part of highest and best use. See Stockton and Modesto commercial appraisals for the south Delta.
• The State as a tenant. Downtown Sacramento office values lean on government and government-related tenants. A building with a long state lease in place on the date of death is valued that way, and a building that had just lost one is valued that way too.
• Leases and occupancy on the date. A building that was half vacant on the date of death, or that had a below-market lease with years left, is valued that way, even if it is full today.
• Many markets in one region. Sacramento County alone has seven incorporated cities: Sacramento, Elk Grove, Citrus Heights, Folsom, Rancho Cordova, Galt and Isleton, plus large unincorporated areas like Arden-Arcade and Carmichael. Roseville, Rocklin, Davis, Woodland, West Sacramento and El Dorado Hills are next door. A Rancho Cordova industrial building, a Midtown fourplex and a Clarksburg vineyard do not trade the same way. Comparable sales have to come from the right submarket and the right time.

Can the appraisal be done years after the date of death?

Yes, and it often is. Trusts can take a long time to settle, and sometimes nobody orders an appraisal until a property is about to be sold or a dispute starts. A retrospective appraisal uses the sales, leases and market conditions that were known or knowable as of the date of death. What helps most is anything that shows the property as it was then: photos, the rent roll and leases in place, operating statements, farm production and water records, and records of repairs or permits.

What should you send the appraiser?

• The exact date of death and, if there is one, the probate case number
• The purpose: basis, estate tax return, trust administration, division among heirs, a Prop 19 matter or a dispute
• A list of every property with address, APN and property type, including each legal parcel of a farm, in the Sacramento region and anywhere else in California
• Rent rolls, leases and operating statements from around the date of death
• For farms: any Williamson Act contract, water rights or district, wells, crop and production records
• Photos and repair or permit records from that time
• Any prior appraisals, purchase contracts, offers or assessor notices
• The attorney or CPA on the estate, and who else will rely on the report

Your appraiser will confirm the exact list on the first call.

How do Sacramento trustees, attorneys and CPAs work with PM Appraisal?

You call (805) 990-9700 and talk to the appraiser who will inspect the properties and write the reports. No coordinator and no AMC portal. We pick up the phone, and we are your ears and eyes on the property. The appraiser inspects the properties in person. Rush commercial appraisals take 5 to 7 business days. Standard timing depends on the property and scope, so call for a timeline on your assignment.

Our opinions are independent. We never take an assignment that requires a predetermined value, and our value conclusion is never tied to the result anyone wants. If heirs or trustees are on opposite sides, tell us at engagement who the client is and who will rely on the report.

Date-of-death work is one example of what we do. PM Appraisal is a family-owned California appraisal firm with about 40 years of work across the state. We appraise every commercial property type, from office, retail, industrial and multifamily to gas stations, hotels, land, farms, vineyards, medical, care facilities and special-use property, and every kind of commercial appraisal: estate and trust, divorce, retroactive, partition, partner and LLC buyouts, eminent domain, tax appeal, lending and consulting. If the estate holds property in several counties, see multi-property portfolio appraisals and our pages for Sacramento, the Bay Area, Stockton and Modesto and Fresno. Other county guides: date of death appraisal in Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego. See all services.

This article is general information, not legal or tax advice. Talk to your attorney or CPA about your estate, your trust and your situation.

Keep reading

• Date of death appraisals
• Commercial appraisal in Sacramento
• Date of death appraisal in California: a guide
• Commercial appraisal in Stockton and Modesto
• Farm and ranch appraisals in California
• Trust administration appraisals in California
• Commercial property appraisal
• Estate and trust appraisals

This article is general information, not legal or tax advice. Talk to your attorney or CPA about your situation.