What a Probate Court Confirmation and Overbid Actually Does to a Cash Offer

When a California probate sale needs court confirmation, a cash offer is not final when the administrator signs it. It becomes the opening bid at a hearing. The court checks that the price is at least 90 percent of a recent appraisal, and any qualified buyer who shows up can overbid it by the minimum increase the Probate Code sets. A cash offer is useful in that setting for one reason: it can stay in place through a hearing date months away without a loan approval expiring underneath it.

This article explains what each step does to the offer, what an administrator should ask a cash buyer before accepting, and when a listing serves the estate better. It is general information, not legal advice. The estate's attorney decides how the sale is conducted.

When does a probate sale need court confirmation?

Court confirmation is required when the personal representative does not have authority to sell without it. Under the Independent Administration of Estates Act, many administrators are granted full authority and can sell real property using a notice of proposed action instead of a confirmation hearing. Others have limited authority, or the court or an heir requires confirmation, and then the sale goes to a hearing under Probate Code section 10308 and the sections that follow it.

The difference matters more than anything else in this article. With full authority, a probate sale looks much like a normal sale with extra paperwork. With confirmation, the court calendar controls the sale, and the rest of this article applies. Your attorney can tell you which you have by reading the letters the court issued.

What does the court check before it confirms the sale?

Probate Code section 10309 sets the floor. For a private sale to be confirmed:

• the property must have been appraised within one year before the confirmation hearing, with a valuation date inside that year; and
• the price offered must be at least 90 percent of that appraised value.

The appraisal here is usually the probate referee's, not a lender's appraisal and not an agent's opinion. If the referee's value is high relative to the house's real condition, a cash offer that prices the condition honestly can fall below the 90 percent floor. That is the first thing to check, before anyone spends time on a hearing.

What we do about it: the offer sheet lists the comparable sales and every condition deduction, so if the offer sits near the floor, the administrator and the attorney can see why, and can decide whether to ask the court for a new appraisal (section 10309 allows one when the existing appraisal is out of date or inaccurate) or to price the house for the market instead.

What happens at the confirmation hearing?

At the hearing, the court considers the accepted offer and any higher written offers made in court. Probate Code section 10311 says the court shall accept a higher offer from a responsible person if it beats the original bid by at least:

• 10 percent of the first $10,000 of the original bid, and
• 5 percent of the amount of the original bid over $10,000.

If there are several qualifying overbids, the court takes the highest, and bidding can continue in the courtroom in increments the judge sets. Broker commissions are left out of the bid calculation.

For a seller, the overbid is the court's way of testing the price in public. For the original buyer, it is a risk: you can do all the work of getting to the hearing and lose the house in the last five minutes.

Why do financed buyers fall out before the hearing?

Hearing dates are set by the court's calendar, often weeks or months after the offer is accepted, and they can be continued. A financed buyer has to keep a loan approval, a rate lock and an appraisal alive across that gap, with no certainty they will be the buyer at the end of it. Many decide it is not worth it, and the estate starts over.

That is the practical case for cash in a confirmation sale. A cash offer written to hold through the hearing does not depend on anyone's underwriting calendar. It does not make the offer higher. It makes it more likely to still exist on the day the judge asks.

What should an administrator ask a cash buyer before accepting?

Ask these in writing, and keep the answers in the estate file:

1. Will the offer stay open through the hearing and any continuance? Get the date range in the agreement.
2. Is the deposit held by an independent escrow company? It should be.
3. Can you show proof of funds in the buyer's name? A bank or lender letter, dated.
4. Is the contract assignable? If the buyer plans to assign the contract to someone else, the court and the heirs should know who is actually buying.
5. What comparable sales and deductions support the price? A number with no work shown is hard to defend to heirs and hard to measure against the 90 percent floor.
6. Will you appear, or send someone, to bid at the hearing if there is an overbid? Some buyers will; some will not.

Our written offer answers all six on the page, because administrators have to hand this paperwork to the court and to heirs who were not in the room.

Does the overbid process mean the estate always gets the highest price?

No. The overbid tests the price among the buyers who show up. It does not market the house. A house that would appeal to owner-occupant buyers, with good condition and a financeable profile, can bring more through a full listing than through a cash confirmation, even after the delays.

That is why every probate file here gets two numbers: the cash offer written for the hearing, and an open-market read on the same house with the preparation costs, the carrying time and the risk of a financed buyer failing before the hearing all subtracted. If the open-market number nets the estate more, the recommendation says so, and the administrator is introduced to a designated local expert who handles probate listings on those blocks.

What this looks like in practice

These are the kinds of files that come in, described without names or figures.

• A Pomona house in Phillips Ranch where the administrator has limited authority, a hearing date set months out and heirs who want certainty more than the last dollar. The cash offer is written to stay open through the hearing and a continuance.
• A Glendora foothill house where the probate referee's value assumed the house was in average condition, and the walkthrough found a roof and slope-drainage problem. The offer sheet shows the deductions line by line, so the attorney can decide whether to ask for a new appraisal before the hearing.
• A Claremont Village bungalow that shows well and would draw owner-occupants. In a file like this the open-market read often nets more, and when it does, the written recommendation is to list.

How does this fit with inherited-house and trust sales?

A house held in a living trust usually sells without probate or court confirmation, because the successor trustee's authority comes from the trust. The overbid rules above do not apply to a trust sale. If you are not sure which you have, start with our pages on selling an inherited house and trust sales, then confirm with counsel.

Next step

If you are administering an estate with a house in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego or Ventura County, see how we handle probate sales, or request both numbers. The walkthrough is scheduled around the estate, and the comps, deductions and net arrive in a form you can hand to the court. For how the two numbers compare in general, read cash offer vs. listing.

Sources

• California Probate Code section 10308 (confirmation of sales): https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PROB&sectionNum=10308 (accessed 2026-09-26)
• California Probate Code section 10309 (appraisal within one year; at least 90 percent of appraised value): https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PROB&sectionNum=10309 (accessed 2026-09-26)
• California Probate Code section 10311 (overbid at the confirmation hearing): https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PROB&sectionNum=10311 (accessed 2026-09-26)
• California Probate Code section 10400 and following (Independent Administration of Estates Act): https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PROB&sectionNum=10400 (accessed 2026-09-26)
• Judicial Branch of California, probate self-help: https://selfhelp.courts.ca.gov/probate (accessed 2026-09-26)

Mr. Cali Offers is not a law firm and does not give legal, tax or probate advice. Cash offers come from independent buyers and investors who buy for their own account and may resell for profit; a cash offer is generally below what the open market would bring. Any value shown is a preliminary estimate, not an appraisal.