Small Estate Affidavit for Real Estate

Scope of this guide

This guide states real property rules only for Arizona, Colorado, Oregon, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Maryland, Tennessee, Minnesota, Utah, and Iowa. Those are the ten states named in the plot for this guide. Every other state is omitted. No verified figure for any other state is stated in this guide. The omission list at the end of this guide discloses the omission in full.

Separate real property lanes

Arizona runs two lanes in the directory summary. The holder affidavit lane covers personal property at $200,000 with a 30 day wait. The real property lane covers $300,000 through the court, not sooner than 6 months after death. A certified copy must be recorded. The two lanes have different caps, different waits, and different channels. They must never be merged.

Oregon runs a probate court procedure in the directory summary. Personal property of $75,000 and real property and manufactured structures of $200,000 combined form the test. The wait is 30 days. A 4 month claim window applies. The procedure is a court procedure, not a holder affidavit.

South Dakota runs a separate real property affidavit lane in section 29A-3-1203. The test is $50,000 in the decedent interest in all real property in South Dakota. Non agricultural property is valued from assessment rolls for the year of death. Agricultural property is valued at fair market value at death. The wait is 60 days. The affidavit is filed with the register of deeds in every county where property sits, with a certified or authenticated death certificate. All claiming successors must sign. Ten statements are required, including entitlement, a Department of Social Services statement, and a transfer fee statement. The personal property lane is separate, with a $100,000 test and a 30 day wait. The two lanes must never be merged.

Affidavit lanes that do not reach real property

Oklahoma section 393 reaches tangible personal property and instruments only. Real property is outside the delivery duty. The holder shall deliver personal property and instruments on a compliant affidavit. A separate mineral filing exists under section 393(D) and the marketability statute. A claimant may file an affidavit of death and heirship with the county clerk where the mineral interest sits. Marketable title requires the affidavit or title transaction to be recorded for at least 10 years with no inconsistent instrument filed in that period. Filing alone creates only a rebuttable presumption. The 10 year condition must never be dropped.

Oklahoma court tracks reach real property through the court. Summary administration petitions must state the probable value and character and the legal description of all Oklahoma real property. A certified copy of the order, or a notice, is filed or recorded with the county clerk in any county where the decedent had any right, title, or interest in real property. The section 241 track applies the same recording rule. The court tracks are not affidavit lanes.

Tennessee has no holder affidavit and its probate property test covers personal property only. Real property is not in the limited letters test. A testate fork allows probate of a will as muniment of title or filing of the original will with witness or handwriting affidavits. That fork is a will probate route, not a real property affidavit. Conversion to probate applies if additional assets exceed the limit.

Iowa bars any interest in real estate from the affidavit lane. The test covers probate assets consisting of personal property only. A separate holder disclosure threshold in the same chapter still states $50,000 with pre 2025 real property wording. Both figures are named in their own subsections and never harmonized. No real property affidavit rule is stated for Iowa beyond the bar.

Real property counted in the test, transferred elsewhere

Colorado counts real property value in the test in the directory summary. The test is $88,000 for 2026 deaths, at fair market value less liens and encumbrances, including real property. The affidavit is notarized. No court filing is stated. The year of death cap applies. No recording step is stated in the directory summary used here, and none is stated in this guide.

Minnesota allows real property in kind only through the summary distribution route in section 524.3-1203. The summary test is $150,000 in gross probate estate exclusive of exempt homestead and exempt property. Appraisal applies. Non homestead property is the property that can pass in kind through that route. The affidavit lane test is $75,000 for the entire probate estate. No statement is made here that the affidavit lane itself transfers real property in kind.

Maryland banks no separate real property affidavit rule in the cited research file. The proceeding is a court petition. The test measures property subject to administration in Maryland at fair market value less debts of record secured by the property. No verified statement is made in this guide that a separate real property affidavit lane exists in Maryland, or that real property is included or excluded as a separate lane. That absence is disclosed rather than filled. The court may direct sale if needed to pay expenses and allowances, as stated in the petition procedure.

Utah banks no verified real property transfer rule for the summary sections in the cited research file. The real property reach of sections 1203 and 1204 was unopened. The affidavit test counts the entire estate subject to administration. No statement is made here that the affidavit lane transfers real property, or that the summary sections do or do not reach real property. The unopened flag is disclosed rather than resolved.

Omitted states

No real property rule is stated in this guide for Virginia, Washington, Illinois, Texas, California, Kansas, Wisconsin, Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Montana, Nebraska, Alabama, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Delaware, New Jersey, Connecticut, North Dakota, Kentucky, New Mexico, Maine, Massachusetts, Alaska, Hawaii, Vermont, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Hampshire, Wyoming, Rhode Island, West Virginia, Ohio, or any other state not named in the scope section. That list is the disclosure required by the omit if ungrounded rule. Some of those states have banked rules in their state guides. Those rules belong in their state guides, not in this explainer, because the plot for this explainer names only ten states. A reader who needs another state real property rule must use the state guide and the directories linked below.

For small estate procedures in other states, see the Small Estate Affidavits by State directory. For the questions each state procedure answers, see Small Estate Affidavit Questions.

Source

Sources: research files A412 (Tennessee), A415 (Minnesota), A422 (Utah), A432 (Iowa), A433 (South Dakota), A444 (Maryland), A446 (Oklahoma), and the live guide directory exemplar for Arizona, Colorado, and Oregon figures. No new data was used. Open flags for Utah real property reach and Maryland real property lane scope are disclosed above. The companion notes file lists every omission.

This page explains how the process works and what the official rules say. It is general information, not legal advice. For a dispute about your specific situation, talk to the court in the state where the estate is handled or a lawyer.