The inventory needs a date-of-death number; Pennsylvania leaves the method to the estate.
Once an Allentown estate is opened, the personal representative must put a date-of-death number on the house. Ask the estate's lawyer what that number is for before ordering a report, then fill us in on the property.
Request a probate appraisal quote · Call (610) 798-1017
Must a Pennsylvania probate estate get a home appraisal?
Not for the inventory; Title 20 splits the job in two. 20 Pa.C.S. § 3301 has the personal representative file a verified inventory with the Lehigh County Register of Wills listing the decedent's personal property wherever it sits and any Pennsylvania real estate, the Allentown house included. Section 3302 then makes that same person write a fair value beside each item, measured at the date of death. The word "appraiser" never appears in Chapter 33. On Form RW-09, the statewide inventory, the personal representative attests that each figure is the item's fair value on the date of death.
An appraisal is simply one way to back up that figure, and sometimes a wise one. Any party in interest can object to the inventory under § 3305, and a date-of-death value for the house also goes on the inheritance tax return, where Revenue has the power to make its own appraisement (72 P.S. § 9137).
Where Title 20 does bring in appraisers
Title 20 mentions appraisers in a few narrow places. The one most likely to touch a house: suppose a widow or widower, or with no spouse the children or parents who shared the household, takes the $3,500 family exemption (§ 3121) out of real estate. Then § 3123 calls for two appraisers, appointed by the court, to value that real estate on the date someone presents the petition asking for their appointment. Your lawyer can say whether that applies.
Lehigh County's offices for an Allentown estate
Probate happens before the register of the county that was the decedent's last family or principal residence (§ 3131). For Allentown, that is the Register of Wills Division of the Lehigh County Clerk of Judicial Records, which also takes in inheritance tax as the Commonwealth's agent. Supervision and contested matters go to the Orphans' Court Division of the Lehigh County Court of Common Pleas, the Thirty-First Judicial District, whose site points out that the Register of Wills is a separate office.
The Register of Wills Division's Lehigh County filing timetable runs like this:
- inside three months of death: an inheritance tax prepayment, which earns a 5% discount;
- inside three months of the grant of letters: certification that beneficiaries and intestate heirs were notified, under Pa. O.C. Rule 10.5;
- inside nine months of death: the inventory and the inheritance tax return;
- inside two years of death: a status report under Pa. O.C. Rule 10.6.
The Register's staff may not advise on preparing these papers. The statute itself sets the inventory's outside date at the earlier of the account's filing or the inheritance tax return's due date, extensions included (§ 3301(c)).
What the estate's figure rests on
Date
Inventory and inheritance tax return both point at the date of death. If an heir buys out the others or the house is sold, a current value may be a separate question.
Condition
Distinguish the house on the date of death from the house after the cleanout, the repairs or a contractor's visit; dated photos and invoices hold that history.
Readers
Personal representative, beneficiaries, the estate's lawyer, the tax preparer: list everyone who will rely on the report before work starts.
Valuing the house as the decedent left it
A retrospective appraisal works from the comparable sales and market conditions around the date of death instead of assuming today's prices apply backward. Where the house has changed, the appraiser explains which evidence shows its condition at death and what had to be assumed.
The county's Recorder of Deeds Division holds the land records for Lehigh County real estate, and the Office of Assessment keeps each parcel's assessment, a percentage of the property's 2013 base-year value. Both help frame the request; neither is a date-of-death value.
The tax side, for your adviser to confirm
Revenue's Schedule A instructions recognize three ways to arrive at a house's value at death. A sale counts if it closed within 15 months of the death, using the gross price. An appraisal counts. So does the county assessment times the common level ratio. A sale inside the circle, to a relative or to someone connected with administering the estate, is the exception: then Revenue insists on an appraisal or other documentary proof of the fair market value. If you disagree with Revenue's valuation notice, you have 60 days from receiving it to protest (72 P.S. § 9186(a)).
On the federal side, an heir's basis generally equals fair market value at the date of death, and the alternate valuation date only comes into play if the executor files a federal estate tax return and elects it (IRS on inherited property). Two taxes people ask about do not apply: there is no federal inheritance tax, and Pennsylvania's own estate tax has had no basis for deaths from January 1, 2005, according to Revenue's REV-229 sheet. Have your lawyer or tax adviser confirm which route the estate takes; an appraisal does not settle the tax.
What to send for a probate quote
| What to send | How it is used |
|---|---|
| Address and type of house | Aims the research and the kind of sales studied |
| Date of death and what the figure must support | Links the job to the inventory, the return or a sale |
| The personal representative's name and the lawyer's instructions | Sets the client and intended users |
| Photos and records from the time of death, and later changes | Keeps then and now apart |
| Keys, access and the filing date ahead | Shapes the visit and the delivery estimate |
How a probate appraisal proceeds
- Talk through the estate. Which Allentown house, which date of death, who reads the report and when the estate needs it; the written scope, fee and delivery estimate arrives before anything begins.
- Record the house. Entry is arranged and the property documented, alongside your evidence of its condition at the date of death.
- Study the period. Sales and market conditions around the date of death are analyzed and the reasoning written down.
- Review before filing. Confirm the effective date, intended use and users, assumptions and limitations, and send factual questions to the appraiser.
Probate appraisal cost and timing for an Allentown estate
Before the estate commits, ask for a written scope, fee and delivery estimate covering this house and this date of death; how long ago the death was, the house's size and condition, and how fast the report is needed all matter. Revenue's Schedule H instructions include appraisers' fees among the administration expenses an estate may report, so check with your adviser how that applies.
See also estate appraisals, IRS step-up appraisals and all Allentown appraisal services.
Start a Lehigh County probate request
Tell us the Allentown address, who will rely on the report and the date of death, or phone (610) 798-1017.
Request a probate appraisal quote · Call (610) 798-1017
AI-assisted draft for The Appraising Group Allentown, based on Title 20, Revenue's instructions and Lehigh County court pages; it explains the probate side of an Allentown appraisal without giving legal or tax advice.