Executors are usually dealing with a valuation question at the worst possible time, with limited information and a process nobody explained. These guides cover what a date-of-death appraisal is, why the effective date matters more here than anywhere else, and what to gather before starting.
The central idea is retrospective valuation. Real property in an estate is valued as of the date the owner died, not as of today, which means the analysis uses only market evidence that existed at that moment. Everything the market learned afterwards is excluded. Where someone died two years ago and the market has moved, those two figures can be a long way apart, and only one of them is the number the estate needs.
None of this is tax advice. How a valuation is used belongs to the estate's attorney or CPA.
