When a customer closes on a home, the transaction feels complete. The loan is funded, the keys are handed over and everyone moves on to the next deal. But for a growing share of American homebuyers, that moment is just the beginning of the story. The next chapter appears years later, usually at the worst possible time.
A friend of mine inherited his father’s house a few years ago. His father worked hard all his life, paid off the house and truly believed that he was leaving his son something valuable… And he was. But he never set up a trust or updated his deed. His will was out of date and the paperwork was scattered. What should have been a simple sale turned into months of back-and-forth with attorneys, title companies, and county offices while my friend grieved. He got through it eventually. But he was frustrated in a way that had nothing to do with losing his father and everything to do with a process that didn’t have to be so difficult.
I think about that story often because it keeps coming up. Not only with friends, but also in conversations with partners in the mortgage and real estate sector. The details change, but the outcome is usually the same.
We started to wonder if this was a pattern or just an anecdote. That’s why we surveyed 1,000 Americans, evenly split between people who received an inheritance in the last twenty years and people who expect one in the next twenty years. We wanted to know how often real estate is part of an inheritance, what heirs actually do with it versus what they think they will do, where things go wrong, and whether consumers are open to hearing estate planning stories from the professionals who already help them buy and finance homes.
Forty-four percent of future heirs expect real estate to be part of their inheritance, compared to 32% of those who have already received one. That gap makes sense when you consider how much home values have risen and how much real estate wealth Boomers hold. When heirs do receive a home, more than 70% have to decide immediately what to do with it. Former heirs sold or rented at a rate of 73%. Future heirs say they will do the same at 71%.
That is a lot of housing transactions that do not arise from a purchase decision, but from a death (most likely in the family).
The gap between intention and reality
The figure I keep coming back to: 36% of future heirs say they plan to keep inherited properties and rent them out. Of the people who actually inherited assets, only 17% did so.
It’s easy to understand why the plan fails. Someone inherits a house, thinks they’ll keep it as a rental, and then the roof needs work, there’s an existing mortgage, siblings have strong opinions, and managing a property while settling an estate is really exhausting. So they sell; often quickly. Often without documentation in order, and often with friction that advance planning could have avoided.
Unexpected costs were the biggest bottleneck in our data, cited by 28% of respondents overall and expected by 38% of future heirs. Title and ownership questions covered 19%. Missing or outdated documents, the exact situation my friend encountered, came up for 18%. These problems do not persist in the world of estate planning. They appear in the title report. They delay closures. Housing professionals are often the ones who have to deal with the mess, even if the cause occurred years before the property hit the market.
Real estate | Estate planning
Buying a house was the most important trigger for estate planning for Generation Z respondents at 23%, prior to marriage, having a child or health problems. Among Millennials, it ranked first at 16%. People in the middle of a purchase are already thinking about ownership and protection through estate planning. That’s really useful to know.
And yet, usually no one brings up estate planning at closing, because I imagine it can feel like an overstep. It is not part of the standard workflow. But 37% of Americans say they would want estate planning guidance from their real estate agent, loan officer or title professional. Among Generation Z this rises to 56%. These clients don’t necessarily wait for their attorney to initiate the conversation. They are open to hearing it from someone they already trust.
It doesn’t have to be complicated. Mentioning that many buyers use this time to make sure they have a will or trust in place and pointing them to a resource is a natural extension of the relationship most home professionals are already trying to build.
A real opportunity
The lenders and brokers who start thinking about this now will be better positioned than those who wait. Not because estate planning is a new revenue stream, but because clients remember who showed up for them after the transaction.
My friend sold his father’s house. It took longer than necessary, cost more than necessary, and added even more stress to an already painful time. I think his father had every intention of getting his affairs in order, but he just never got around to it. That scenario will happen millions of times over the next twenty years. The professionals already in the room at the time of purchase have a real opportunity to help families avoid this. Most people haven’t thought about it that way.
The data cited comes from a Trust & Will survey of 1,000 U.S. adults conducted by Talker Research from January 28 to February 4, 2026.
Cody Barbo is the co-founder and CEO of Trust & Will
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of HousingWire’s editorial staff and its owners. To contact the editor responsible for this piece: [email protected].
