Resolving Disputes Between Heirs
Brad Woodall:
“Do you have a recurring piece of advice you give people dealing with estates? One thing I see a lot is disagreements about the value of property. Someone always thinks it’s worth a million bucks! Like this one lady, her son was there when we made an offer, and he told her it was double what he thought it was worth. In those situations, what do you do?”
Sheri Samotin:
“I tell the people in charge to over-communicate, and I explain to the others what that means. They need to understand that the person in charge may ask their opinion, but they’re not obligated to follow it.
As for valuing property, if it’s not a taxable estate, I usually skip the formal appraisal. I get opinions from a few brokers I trust, who know the market. I share those with the beneficiaries and explain my choice. Then we list the property and hold it open for at least two weekends before accepting offers. We usually price it a bit low to generate multiple offers, and that creates a kind of auction. It’s hard to argue with the market! They may not like the final price, but they can’t say it wasn’t a fair process.”