Probate leads in San Francisco County, California.
Investors researching probate leads in San Francisco County can compare public court lists with USLeadList death and property matches, which do not wait for a court filing. Our 12-month average is 103 records per month.
$1.30 is the 12-month subscription rate and $1.80 the standard rate; the monthly range uses the 12-month average. Your quote sets the exact figure. See how probate lead prices compare. Volume: 12-month average, November 2025 to October 2026.
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San Francisco County probate court records: how to search them
What is public, where to search, and what it misses.San Francisco probate is handled by the Probate Department of the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco, which hears decedents' estates and trusts in Department 204; represented parties must e-file in estate and trust cases.
How to search the record
The court's Case Query looks up probate cases filed from 1987 to the present by case number or by name, and its case calendar shows hearings up to 120 days out. To view a file at the clerk's office you must deposit a government-issued photo ID, and files at least two years old may be off-site, with a $6 retrieval fee. Creditors get four months after letters issue to file a claim (Probate Code 9100).
What the court record misses
Case Query shows the same San Francisco estates to every investor who searches it, and only after someone files. Homes held in living trusts never reach the court. Probate lists leave out trust-held homes. Ours include them. USLeadList is a data company and is not affiliated with the court.
Inside San Francisco County
What the data looks like here.Over the last 12 months, San Francisco County's pre-probate and inheritance data averaged about 103 new records a month, and the busiest month since March 2022 reached 120. The file is built from death and property records, so no probate department filing has to happen for a name to land in it.
Why investors work San Francisco County
San Francisco is built out almost to its edges, so an inherited house here is usually a remodel or rebuild decision rather than a land play. Proposition 19 turns it into a tax decision too. Under Revenue and Taxation Code 63.2, a parent to child transfer keeps the Proposition 13 assessment only if it was the parent's home, the heir moves in and files for the homeowners' exemption within a year, and the value stays inside the old assessment plus $1,044,586. Rent it out or leave it sitting empty and the parcel is reassessed at market, which on a house held since the 1970s can multiply the tax bill. Not every one of these homes generates a probate filing: a revocable living trust, joint tenancy or a recorded transfer on death deed carries title outside the estate.
On the ground
Planning calls the Rousseaus' Boulevard Tract architecture whimsical and detailed, a unique Bay Area version of Storybook Style. Two Sunset District blocks hold 93 houses brothers Oliver and Arthur Rousseau built in 1932 and 1933, including the earliest Sunset Patio Plan homes, whose indoor patios pulled light and air into living spaces. Planning identified the tract as a potential historic district in the 2012 to 2013 Sunset survey and has drafted a landmark ordinance on which alterations are approvable and what review applies. Anyone buying on those blocks should check where that designation stands before pricing an addition rather than assuming a Sunset address is a plain tract house.
Comparing Probate Lead Sources in San Francisco County
Estate and trust matters in San Francisco are heard by the Probate Department of the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco, with filings efiled through court-approved providers working with File & ServeXpress. The court's Case Query tool lets anyone look up probate cases by case number or party name back to 1987, so a filed estate is a public record that competing investors can inspect too. A creditor has until four months after letters issue, or 60 days after notice of administration under Probate Code 9100, and a Probate Code 13151 petition over a primary residence can be filed 40 days after the death. A revocable living trust, joint tenancy, or a recorded transfer on death deed passes title with no ordinary probate case, and a docket search cannot show those transfers at all. USLeadList identifies inherited property itself from death and property records, typically about five weeks after a death, often before a filing and independent of whether a case opens, and each lead goes to at most three subscribers, which starts you earlier and wider than a docket check.
How California rules shape San Francisco leads
Verified state research, applied locally.Proposition 19, operative for intergenerational transfers on February 16, 2021 and implemented by Rev. and Tax. Code 63.2, attaches a real recurring cost to holding. A parent to child or grandparent to grandchild transfer keeps the Proposition 13 assessed value only if the property was the transferor's family home and the heir makes it their own principal residence and claims the homeowners' or disabled veterans' exemption within one year of the transfer. The exclusion is capped at the existing taxable value plus $1,000,000 as adjusted, which is $1,044,586 for transfers from February 16, 2025 through February 15, 2027. An heir who rents the home, leaves it vacant or does not move in loses the exclusion and the parcel is reassessed to market value, so a house held since the 1970s can carry several times the tax the day it transfers.
Ways property can avoid probate
Revocable living trust, the dominant instrument in California, and the revocable transfer on death deed under Prob. Code 5600 through 5698, which remains authorized until that part is repealed on January 1, 2032. Joint tenancy and community property with right of survivorship also move real property at death. Property passing by any of these routes never generates a probate filing.
Small-estate route
For deaths on or after April 1, 2025 there are three distinct routes, and they must not be collapsed into one court status. First, the Probate Code 13100 and 13101 affidavit can collect personal property after 40 days where the qualifying California estate does not exceed $208,850. It is furnished directly to the person, company or financial institution holding the property, is a non-court personal-property procedure, and cannot transfer a house. Second, the Probate Code 13200 affidavit for California real property of small value up to $69,625 is filed in the superior court and cannot be filed until six months after death. Third, the Probate Code 13151 procedure for a decedent's California primary residence up to $750,000 requires 40 days and a petition in superior court for an order determining succession, as amended by AB 2016, Stats. 2024, chapter 331. The amounts adjust every three years under Probate Code 890, next on April 1, 2028.
Timing that affects the public record
A creditor must file a claim before the later of four months after letters are first issued to a general personal representative, or 60 days after notice of administration is mailed or personally delivered to that creditor (Prob. Code 9100). Notice of the petition to administer the estate must be published three times, with first publication at least 15 days before the hearing and at least five days between the first and last publication dates (Prob. Code 8121). The personal-property affidavit under Probate Code 13100 and the primary-residence petition under 13151 require 40 days after death, while the real-property affidavit under 13200 cannot be filed until six months after death. The personal representative must petition for final distribution or report the status of administration within one year after letters issue, or 18 months where a federal estate tax return is required (Prob. Code 12200). No California judiciary source publishes a typical duration.
Where court cases can be checked
No statewide case search. Each of the 58 superior courts runs its own public case access portal, and the Judicial Council directs the public to the individual court through its Find Your Court locator rather than to a central index.
Why pre-probate
Why pre-probate leads in San Francisco County, California?A public probate list requires a filed case. Our source does not require a filing and may precede a later filing, but that is not guaranteed.
Inheritance creates a property decision
A death does not guarantee a sale. It does create practical decisions about upkeep, distance, taxes, repairs and whether anyone in the family wants the property.
Earlier than a court filing
When probate is required, the public case begins after the death and after someone files. Our county records begin with the death record itself.
Not limited to probate cases
Trusts, survivorship ownership and state-specific transfer instruments can move a property without an ordinary probate case. Court-only lists do not identify those paths.
Property data with optional contact enrichment
Size, location, value, and tax information come with the property record. Phone, email, spouse, and relative data are available through the skip tracing add-on.
What we mean by pre-probate
Pre-probate > probate. Here's why.Our San Francisco County data is not a court probate list. It identifies inherited-property records from deaths, including properties that may later enter probate and properties that never do.
The court docket is only one transfer path.
A trust, survivorship ownership or an authorized transfer deed may keep a property out of an ordinary probate case. The exact rules vary by state, which is why the local court and transfer details above matter.
An inheritance creates choices, not a guaranteed sale:
- Keep or occupy the property
- Rent it or transfer it within the family
- Sell it privately or through a public listing
FAQ
San Francisco County-specific questions.How many pre-probate records does San Francisco County produce each month?
Does a parent to child transfer in San Francisco keep the old tax base?
Which California small-estate route can move a San Francisco house?
Do you have leads for San Francisco, California?
How do I work these leads in San Francisco County?
Why purchase from USLeadList?
Who uses USLeadList pre-probate leads?
How do I purchase pre-probate leads in San Francisco County?
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