value of property sold - inherited in 07 with no appraisal

[schirallicpa]

The client inherited real property - vacant and timbered already - in 2007. She sold it in 2011 for $140,000. Since their was no "estate", no appraisel was ever made of the property. She did find 2007 property tax assessment of $60,000. The real estate people originally had it listed at $250000, and came down to $190000 and it sold for $140000. I don't think the tax assessment of $60000 is reflective of the market value at date of death. I have considered using inflation index to back the 140000 to 2007 figure, which would be around 130000.

What else should I do?

[BulldogTom]

Call an appraiser and get a late appraisal based on date of death. Hopefully, they will have comparables from the period that will get you an accurate number. It is better than nothing.

Tom

Lodi, CA

[JohnH]

Was the executor or administrator need to file an inventory with the clerk of court (or whomever qualifies the administrator in your state)? The initial inventory isn't the final word, and it's often mistakenly valued very low, but it's at least one other source of contemporaneous info.

[kcjenkins]

Tom has it right. It is not hard to get a late appraisal, they do it by looking back at comparable properties sold at the time. Costs a bit more, usually, than one done at the time, but well worth it when the amounts are significant.