Partition. Probate. Trust Sales.

San Francisco's Trusted Probate & Partition Real Estate Agent

Court-supervised sales don't behave like a typical residential listing. Every step, valuation, disclosures, marketing, and the confirmation hearing itself, has to satisfy the court, the opposing parties, and a calendar nobody on the sale side controls. Allison Chapleau built her practice around exactly that: partition actions, probate estates, and trust sales across San Francisco, priced and marketed to hold up under real scrutiny and still come out ahead.

Email Allison Call (415) 516-0648

A partition action, a probate estate, and a living trust are three different legal situations, but they share one thing: the real estate sale sitting inside them answers to more than just the market. Deadlines get set by a judge, not a listing agent. Every co-owner, heir, or beneficiary has a stake in how it turns out, often with a lawyer watching the process. This is the specific work Allison Chapleau, Senior Vice President at Compass, has done for more than 24 years in San Francisco: pricing and marketing property so it holds up under those conditions, from the first valuation to the confirmation hearing.

Referee-Aligned. Procedural. Built to Compete.

Partition Sales

When co-owners can't agree and a judge orders a sale, a court-appointed referee typically oversees it, and every side of the dispute has to be treated the same way. In practice, that means a specific kind of marketing: an initial listing period followed by a formal overbid hearing, where other buyers can top the accepted offer in open court.

Allison Chapleau builds partition listings around that two-phase structure from day one, pricing and marketing the property to draw real competition at the courthouse steps while staying inside what the referee and the court require.

Partition San Francisco building (partition sale)
In Practice
  • Communicating through the referee and every co-owner without favoring a side
  • Marketing built around the two-phase, overbid structure the court expects
  • Pricing backed by real comparable sales, not a guess
  • Screening buyers who can actually close on deposit and "as-is" terms
  • Deadlines kept aligned with the statutory timeline
  • Real bidding competition at the confirmation hearing, with fewer procedural objections along the way

Confirmation-Ready. Calendar-Driven.

Probate Sales

A probate sale answers to the court, not just the market. The valuation needs to be defensible enough to survive a confirmation hearing, the paperwork has to satisfy the executor's and the court's requirements, and the marketing timeline has to work around the court's calendar instead of a standard 30-day escrow.

Allison Chapleau builds each probate listing around that calendar from the start, so the price holds up at confirmation and the executor isn't scrambling to meet a court date.

Probate San Francisco Transamerica Pyramid street view (probate sale)
What Has to Happen
  • A valuation built to hold up under confirmation review
  • Documentation the executor and the court can both rely on
  • Coordinating the listing, marketing, and property access end to end
  • Vetting buyers and preparing for the overbid hearing
  • Managing escrow against the court's schedule, with a plan for what could delay it
  • Direct updates throughout, not a game of phone tag

Beneficiary-Aware. Value-First.

Trust Property Sales

Selling trust property means answering to beneficiaries who each have a financial stake in the outcome, and to the fiduciary duty that comes with being a trustee. Every pricing and timing call needs to be one you could explain and defend later, if someone asks.

Allison Chapleau structures trust sales around that reality, balancing full market exposure against the trustee's obligations and the beneficiaries' expectations.

Trust Historic San Francisco stone building (trust sale)
What's Involved
  • Valuation grounded in real comparable sales, not assumptions
  • A sale strategy that respects distribution deadlines and trustee duties
  • An honest look at private sale versus open-market options
  • Clear, consistent updates that keep beneficiaries aligned
  • Pricing and documentation that hold up if anyone asks questions later
“

I wanted to write this quick note about Allison Chapleau, and her excellent work on a property sale stemming from a partition action in the San Francisco Superior Court. Allison was such an asset that I doubt that the case would have resolved without her. Although the parties agreed in principle to sell the property, the fact remained that there were multiple difficult personalities on both sides and relations between the parties were contentious at best. Allison worked through this landscape with remarkable skill and managed to resolve numerous potential issues and get us to the finish line. And she was able to secure a sale price that exceeded my expectations. I unequivocally recommend Allison.

Gregory Walston, Attorney

Why Attorneys, Executors & Trustees Call Allison First

Allison Chapleau has worked exclusively in San Francisco real estate for more than 24 years. She's the #1 listing agent in the city by number of 2-4 unit listings from 2021 to 2025, and the leading listing agent citywide for 5+ unit buildings from 2021 to 2026, with over $1 billion in career transactions and 300+ buildings sold.

That track record matters specifically for a court-supervised sale. Every one of these transactions gets a second and third look, from the judge, from opposing counsel, from beneficiaries who don't always see eye to eye. Allison has priced and marketed enough probate estates, partition actions, and trust properties that this isn't a specialty she dips into occasionally. It's a regular part of how she works. Her pricing is built on comparable sales and real buyer demand, which is exactly what holds up at a confirmation hearing. And because she's spent decades building relationships with Bay Area investors, developers, and brokers, a new listing reaches serious buyers immediately, including the ones most likely to compete once the overbid hearing starts.

She's a University of San Francisco graduate with a degree in Business Administration and a minor in Finance, and her entire career has been built serving San Francisco property owners, among them the families and fiduciaries navigating some of the hardest transactions in real estate.

Probate & Partition Real Estate Questions, Answered

Look for an agent who has actually worked inside court-supervised transactions, not a general listing agent who's simply willing to take one on. That means knowing how to communicate impartially with a court-appointed referee and multiple co-owners, building a marketing plan around the two-phase overbid structure the court expects, and pricing the property so it holds up once other bidders get involved at confirmation. Allison Chapleau has handled San Francisco Superior Court partition actions directly, including cases where the co-owners were barely on speaking terms, and backs that experience with 24+ years and over $1B in San Francisco sales.

The agents worth calling are the ones who've actually taken estates through court confirmation more than once or twice, not agents who happen to recognize the word probate. That means they can produce a valuation that survives a confirmation hearing, price for overbid scrutiny, and manage escrow against a court's calendar instead of a standard 30-day timeline. Allison Chapleau, Senior Vice President at Compass, has guided estates through that full process repeatedly, including a Lone Mountain development site that sold $1.5 million over its list price through the court overbid process.

A partition action is what happens when co-owners of a property disagree, usually about whether to sell and on what terms, and one of them asks the court to step in. A California court can order the sale, appoint a referee to run the process, and require the marketing and sale terms to meet specific statutory rules. Since the sale ultimately needs court confirmation, the pricing and marketing plan has to be built for a competitive overbid hearing, not just a single accepted offer.

When an estate sells real property through probate, the personal representative, the executor or administrator, generally needs the court's approval first. Depending on the authority they were granted, that can mean formal notice to interested parties, a court confirmation hearing, and an in-person overbid where other buyers can top the accepted price live in the courtroom. Because of that, the listing price and marketing strategy need to hold up under real-time competitive bidding, not just look good on paper.

Probate applies when a property is part of someone's estate after they've passed and has to move through the probate court, usually with a confirmation requirement. A trust sale applies when the property was already placed in a living trust before death, which usually lets the trustee sell without court involvement, though they're still bound by fiduciary duty to the beneficiaries and need pricing and records that can withstand their scrutiny. Trust sales tend to move faster than probate since they skip court confirmation, but they still demand careful, well-documented handling.

It depends on the case, the court's calendar, and whether anyone is contesting the sale, but court-confirmed sales almost always take longer than a standard residential transaction because of required notice periods and the time it takes to get a confirmation or overbid hearing scheduled. An agent who plans the marketing timeline around the actual court calendar, instead of assuming a typical 30-day escrow, keeps things moving instead of getting caught off guard by a delay.

This is general information, not legal advice. Probate, partition, and trust sales carry case-specific legal requirements. Talk to a licensed attorney about your situation.

Managing a Probate, Partition, or Trust Sale in San Francisco?

Attorneys, executors, trustees, and co-owners come to this kind of sale needing precision, clean documentation, and a strategy built for scrutiny, not guesswork. Reach out to talk through the property, what the court will require, and what the next step should be.

Email Allison Call (415) 516-0648