When a client 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 only the beginning of the story. The next chapter shows up years later, usually at the worst possible time.
A friend of mine inherited his father’s home a few years ago. His dad worked hard his whole life, paid off the house, and genuinely believed he was leaving his son something valuable… And he was. But he never set up a trust or updated his deed. His will was outdated and the paperwork was scattered. What should have been a straightforward sale turned into months of back-and-forth with attorneys, title companies, and county offices, all while my friend was grieving. He got through it eventually. But he was frustrated in a way that had nothing to do with losing his dad and everything to do with a process that did not have to be that hard.
I think about that story often, because it keeps coming up. Not just with friends, but in conversations with partners across the mortgage and real estate space. The details change, but the outcome is usually the same.
We started asking ourselves whether this was a pattern or just an anecdote. So we surveyed 1,000 Americans, split evenly between people who received an inheritance in the past 20 years and people who expect one in the next 20. We wanted to know how often property 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 about estate planning from the professionals already helping 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 already received one. That gap makes sense when you consider how much home values have risen and how much property wealth Boomers are holding. When heirs do receive a home, more than 70% face an immediate decision about what to do with it. Past heirs sold or rented at a 73% rate. Future heirs say they will do the same at 71%.
That is a lot of housing transactions that originate not from a purchase decision, but from a death (most likely in the family).
The gap between intention and reality
The number I keep returning to: 36% of future heirs say they plan to keep inherited property and rent it out. Among people who actually inherited property, only 17% did that.
It is easy to understand why the plan falls apart. Someone inherits a house, figures they will hold it as a rental, and then the roof needs work, there is an existing mortgage, siblings have strong opinions, and managing a property while settling an estate is genuinely exhausting. So they sell; often quickly. Often without documentation sorted out, and often with friction that some upfront planning would have avoided.
Unexpected costs were the top friction point in our data, cited by 28% of respondents overall and anticipated by 38% of future heirs. Title and ownership questions affected 19%. Missing or outdated documents, the exact situation my friend ran into, came up for 18%. These problems do not stay in the estate planning world. They show up on the title report. They delay closings. Housing professionals are often the ones dealing with the mess, even when the root cause happened years before the property ever hit the market.
Real estate | Estate planning
Buying a home was the number one estate planning trigger for Gen Z respondents at 23%, ahead of marriage, having a child, or a health scare. Among Millennials it tied for first at 16%. People in the middle of a purchase are already thinking about ownership and protection via estate planning. That is genuinely useful to know.
And yet most of the time, nobody brings up estate planning at closing because I imagine it can feel like overstepping. It is not part of the standard workflow. But 37% of Americans say they would take estate planning guidance from their real estate agent, loan officer, or title professional. Among Gen Z that rises to 56%. These clients are not necessarily waiting for their attorney to initiate the conversation. They are open to hearing it from someone they already trust.
It doesn’t need to be complicated. Mentioning that a lot of buyers use this moment to make sure they have a will or trust in place, and pointing them toward a resource, is a natural extension of the relationship most housing professionals are already trying to build.
A real opportunity
The lenders and agents 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 beyond the transaction.
My friend got his father’s house sold. It took longer than it should have, cost more than it needed to, and added stress to an already painful time. I guess his dad had every intention of getting his affairs in order, but he just never got around to it. That scenario is going to play out millions of times over the next two decades. The professionals who are already in the room at the moment of purchase have a genuine opportunity to help families avoid it. Most just have not thought of it that way yet.
Data cited is from a Trust & Will survey of 1,000 U.S. adults conducted by Talker Research, January 28 to February 4, 2026.
Cody Barbo is the Co-Founder & CEO of Trust & Will
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of HousingWire’s editorial department and its owners. To contact the editor responsible for this piece: [email protected].
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