When a parent puts a house in a trust, the sale can follow a different road than the one most families expect. I have written about the probate path — Surrogate’s Court, Letters Testamentary, the months families spend waiting before anyone can sign a listing. That is what most people brace for after a parent dies.
But some parents took a different step years earlier. They moved the house into a trust.
If that happened in your family, the road may look different. And the reason I am writing this is that families often do not know it happened until someone goes and looks.
Nobody Tells the Children
Putting a house in a trust is quiet work. It happens at an attorney’s office, sometimes a decade or more before it matters, and parents frequently do not sit their children down to explain it. The paperwork goes in a drawer.
So the first time a family hears the word “trust” is often months after the funeral, from a lawyer, at exactly the point when everyone is exhausted.
The step that gets skipped is the simplest one: look at the deed.
What the Deed Will Show You
Every deed in Nassau and Suffolk is recorded with the County Clerk, and the record is public. Anyone can look at it.
What you are looking for is whose name is on the most recent deed, and when it was recorded. If the property was transferred into a trust, there will be a recorded deed showing it — with a date, and usually with the trust named.
I pulled exactly this on a Carle Place property recently. A deed showed the home had been moved into a trust years before the owner died. The family had assumed they were waiting on a September court date. What that deed actually meant for their sale was a question for their attorney — but it was worth asking, and it was worth asking early rather than after months of waiting.
That is the whole point of looking. Not to reach a conclusion yourself, but to know what question to bring to the lawyer.
What Selling a House in a Trust Tends to Involve
I am not an attorney and I cannot tell you what applies to your family. But in the estate sales I have handled, a few things come up consistently.
The trustees are the ones who sign. Not the heirs, not everyone in the family — whoever the trust names. If there are two trustees, expect both signatures on the listing agreement and on the contract. Nothing stalls a sale faster than a co-trustee who was never brought into the conversation.
A certificate of trust usually comes up. It is a short document your attorney can prepare that confirms authority to sell without disclosing the private terms of the trust itself. Title companies typically ask for one. Getting it early rather than at contract saves a scramble.
The trust document governs, and you may not have read it. Even when a deed looks straightforward, the trust itself can contain conditions that affect a sale. That is the attorney’s territory, and it is why I never tell a family what their situation means — only what the public record shows.
The Tax Question That Catches People
How and when a property was transferred can affect cost basis at sale. In plain terms, that can change what the family owes when the house sells, sometimes substantially.
A transfer made during the owner’s lifetime and one that happens at death are not always treated the same way. That is a real question with real money attached, and it belongs to an accountant or an estate attorney.
My only advice on it is timing: ask before a contract is signed, not after. It is a much better conversation to have early.
What Is Happening in the Market While You Decide
Whichever path your family is on, it helps to know the ground you are standing on.
The industry measures this as months’ supply of inventory — how long it would take to sell everything currently listed if nothing new came on. Six months is the line between a seller’s market and a buyer’s market.
As of August 2026, New York State single-family sits at 5.3 months. Carle Place, one Nassau town, is at 0.9 — under four weeks of inventory, with only seven single-family homes sold there in the previous twelve months. Those figures come from the OneKey MLS.
The national headlines about rising inventory may have nothing to do with your parent’s street. Before anyone decides on price or timing, find out what the number is where the house actually sits.
What to Do This Week
- Look for the deed and any trust documents in your parent’s papers
- If you cannot find them, the deed is public record at the County Clerk — or ask me and I will pull it
- Find out who the trust names as trustee, and make sure everyone named knows
- Ask the attorney about the certificate of trust, and ask the accountant about cost basis
- Locate the survey and certificate of occupancy if they are in the house
One More Thing
A parent who set up a trust was usually trying to make this easier on the people they left behind. That is generally why people do it — to spare their family the hard part later.
It is worth finding out whether they did. It takes an afternoon at the County Clerk, and it may change your entire timeline.
If you are looking at a house in a trust and want help figuring out where you stand, call me. No obligation, and no timeline you have to commit to. I would rather you be well informed than be my client.
Carolyn A. Best is a licensed real estate salesperson with EXIT Realty Premier, serving Nassau, Suffolk, Queens and Brooklyn. She is a retired paralegal and a notary public and focuses on estate and senior transition sales. She is not an attorney and does not provide legal or tax advice.
