Guide

The House Question: Real Estate and Small Estates

A house in the deceased's name alone is the single most common reason a 'small' estate ends up in court. The states answer it three different ways.

Money in a bank account is easy for the law to move with a sworn paper. A house is not: it has a title record, a chain of ownership, and buyers and lenders who will demand court-grade proof decades from now. So the states split on what a house does to a small estate:

• The house is simply outside the affidavit. Illinois, New York, Delaware and many others: the affidavit moves money and belongings only. A solely-owned house means a court proceeding for the house, whatever the bank accounts do. (In Illinois the accounts can still move by affidavit while the house is in court — the two tracks run in parallel.)
• The house has its own track. California built two: a real-property affidavit for property up to $69,625, and a court petition for a primary residence worth up to $750,000 — because in California the house is usually the estate. Texas lets a homestead pass through its affidavit only to a surviving spouse or minor children living in it.
• The house rides inside the same procedure. Oregon's small-estate affidavit carries real property up to $200,000 alongside personal property up to $75,000. Louisiana's small succession counts the house toward the same $200,000 total as everything else (a 2026 law raised it from $125,000). Florida's summary administration can carry exempt and homestead property.

Before any of that, ask the title question: whose name is on the deed, and is anyone else on it? A house held jointly with survivorship, or one with a recorded transfer-on-death deed, is not in the probate estate at all — see what doesn't count. The checker asks for the house separately for exactly this reason: in state after state, the house — not the money — decides the door.

← All guides