Inherited Property

Inherited Property Real Estate Agent in Costa Mesa, CA

Paula Aragone works with heirs who have been left a Costa Mesa house, in a city where the report the seller has to order from City Hall is the document that turns an addition nobody can explain into a matter of public record.

The short answer

Costa Mesa hands an heir a specific problem. More than 75 percent of the housing here was built before 1980, additions and garage conversions are the city's most common escrow issue, and the city runs a point of sale Report of Residential Building Records that puts the zoning and permitted use of the building into a document. An heir who never lived in the house cannot answer for work done in 1974. The permit file has to.

  • Which route appliesDecided by the date of death and the size of the estate
  • Personal property affidavit208,850 dollars, deaths on or after 1 April 2025
  • Succession to real property750,000 dollars, California primary residence only
  • Basis on the date of deathIRC section 1014, supported by an appraisal
  • Costa Mesa specificReport of Residential Building Records, Municipal Code Title 5
  • Where probate is heardCosta Mesa Justice Complex, 3390 Harbor Blvd
23+
Years in Orange County
900+
Transactions
$900M+
Sold
CPRES
Certified
SRES
Certified
What you have inherited

Three Quarters of This City Went Up Before 1980


The lots here are big enough to build on, which is the reason Costa Mesa attracts the buyers it does and also the reason so many of its houses carry work that predates the records.

The Costa Mesa Housing Element records that more than 75 percent of housing units were built before 1980, specifically 79 percent of owner occupied units and 77 percent of rentals. Condition across the city is reported as relatively good, with less than ten percent needing minor repairs and about two percent needing substantial rehabilitation. Age here is not the same thing as decay. It is a question of what era of systems the house still runs on.

Pre 1950 Westside and downtown stock brings raised foundations and post and pier construction, knob and tube remnants, galvanised supply, cast iron drains, original wood sash, lead paint and asbestos era materials. Under floor access becomes a real inspection item on this stock in a way it is not elsewhere in the city. The 1950s, Halecrest and its peers, still carries raised foundations alongside early slab, with panels well past service life.

The 1960s band, Eastside, Mesa Verde, Mesa del Mar and College Park, is the largest single slice of the city's housing and it sits exactly inside the CPSC aluminium branch wiring window for anything permitted from 1965 onward. Add slab on grade, galvanised or early copper supply, cast iron drains, original aluminium sliders, and Federal Pacific or Zinsco panels. The 1970s and 1980s attached product in South Coast Metro and Wimbledon carries the polybutylene question instead.

The lots are the reason all of this matters more here than in a master planned city. Roughly 7,400 square feet median on the Eastside and roughly 6,900 on the Westside, materially larger than comparable Irvine or Tustin Legacy product. That space invited additions, and the infill culture on both sides of Newport Boulevard rewarded square footage for decades. Unpermitted additions and converted garages are, by a wide margin, the city's most common escrow problem.

Costa Mesa also has a point of sale ordinance that exists specifically to surface that work. Municipal Code Title 5, Chapter VIII requires the owner of a residential building to obtain a Report of Residential Building Records from the city upon entering into an agreement of sale, describing the zoning of the building, the number of dwelling units permitted under that classification, and other information relevant to use, occupancy and construction.

For an ordinary seller that report is an administrative step. For an heir it is something else: it is the moment when a room a parent added in 1974, and never mentioned, becomes a city document. That is not a reason to avoid the report. It is a reason to pull the permit history first, so the estate knows what the report will say before a buyer reads it.

The sequence

Selling an Inherited Costa Mesa House, in Sequence


The order below is written for a house whose owner is no longer available to explain anything about it. Two steps, the city report and the permit file, are what replace the conversation you can no longer have.

01

Identify the estate's route before anything else

Thresholds are fixed at the date of death. For deaths on or after 1 April 2025, the Probate Code 13100 affidavit for personal property reaches 208,850 dollars, the 13151 petition to determine succession to real property reaches 750,000 dollars for a California primary residence only, and the 13200 affidavit for real property of small value reaches 69,625 dollars. Beyond those it is a full probate, or a trust administration.

02

Put signing authority in place

Orange County probate is heard at the Costa Mesa Justice Complex, 3390 Harbor Blvd, which for many families here is a short drive. What matters is what the letters say: full authority under Probate Code 10402 lets a representative sell without a confirmation hearing, while limited authority under 10403 excludes exactly that power. A trust needs the successor trustee and a Certification of Trust.

03

Make the empty house safe and insurable

Change the locks, redirect the post, keep the water and power connected, and tell the insurance carrier the house is now vacant, because a homeowners policy is written around somebody living in it. On the older Eastside and Westside stock, keeping water on also means somebody has to check for leaks, since a slow one in an empty house runs for weeks.

04

Pin the date of death value

IRC section 1014 resets the basis to fair market value on the date of death, and that number decides the tax on a later sale. In a full probate a referee appointed under Probate Code 8920 supplies it, with Orange County stating the appraisal should come back within sixty days. In a trust there is no referee, so the trustee has to commission one. Order it before the house changes.

05

Clear the contents, settle who is living there

Contents leave before the house does, and a written record of what went where prevents most of the arguments that follow. If a relative, a carer or a tenant is in occupation, their position has to be established in writing before the listing goes live. Occupancy discovered by a buyer during escrow is far more expensive than occupancy resolved in week one.

06

Decide as is or prepare, with the city report in hand

Costa Mesa buyers inspect and the city issues a report on the building records regardless, so condition and permit history both surface. The realistic choice is whether the estate prices them or the buyer does. On a 1960s house with an unexplained addition, selling as it stands with the report and an inspection already in hand is usually the cleaner transaction.

07

Answer the disclosures out of the permit file

An heir has no personal knowledge of the house and should not manufacture any. Search building permit records by street address or APN through Building and Safety, and where the online record stops, which is common for pre digitisation permits, file a Public Records Act request for permit jackets, approved plans, inspection logs and finals with the APN and a year range.

08

List it into the right side of town

Costa Mesa was never master planned, so there is no village system to lean on and adjacency is a block by block fact rather than a neighbourhood generalisation. Broad exposure also does a second job in an inherited file: where several heirs split the proceeds, an open market sale is the only version of the price all of them can check.

09

Close, and divide through the estate

The buyer executes an acknowledgment of the city report which is filed with the city within thirty days after closing. Orange County documentary transfer tax runs at 0.55 dollars for each 500 dollars of net consideration over 100 dollars, which is 1.10 dollars per 1,000 dollars. Proceeds go to the estate or trust, and the heirs are paid from there.

Where we work

Costa Mesa Block by Block, Because There Is No Village System


Nothing here was master planned, so the useful unit is the tract and the street rather than the neighbourhood name. These are the ones that come up most often in inherited files.

Eastside Costa Mesa

East of Newport Boulevard toward the Back Bay, median build year around 1961, median lot around 7,405 square feet, the largest of the two main quadrants. Midcentury ranch with newer infill, and city policy that emphasises single family preservation.

The 17th Street corridor

East 17th Street is the Eastside commercial spine and the everyday errand and dining street. It is the strongest non school amenity argument on that side of town and the reason the Eastside reads as walkable to a buyer arriving from out of the area.

Westside Costa Mesa

Median build year around 1960, median lot around 6,969 square feet. Orange County's first tract housing appeared here in the late 1940s and 1950s. Four traditions run through it: Craftsman, California Bungalow, Spanish Colonial Revival and midcentury modern.

19 West

A Westside overlay zone designated as a revitalisation area permitting residential or mixed use. An heir cannot describe what it is like to live next to a mixed use parcel, which is exactly why the adjacency has to be checked rather than characterised.

Mesa West Residential Ownership and Mesa West Bluffs

Two further Westside overlays. Together with 19 West they are the reason the Westside has to be evaluated parcel by parcel: residential sits next to commercial and industrial, and noise, odour and vibration are street level facts.

Mesa Verde

Bounded by I-405, Harbor Boulevard, Victoria Street and the Santa Ana River, bisected by Adams Avenue, largely developed through the 1960s and 1970s. Anchored by Mesa Verde Country Club, opened January 1959, with the Costa Mesa Golf Course and the Fairview Channel nearby.

Mesa del Mar

An early 1960s tract north of the Fairgrounds, consistent single storey and two storey ranch product on regular lots. One of the most cohesive mid 1960s neighbourhoods in the city, which makes an unpermitted addition stand out immediately against its neighbours.

College Park

Adjacent to Orange Coast College and the Fairgrounds, established, with varied lot shapes and a mix of original construction and newer infill. The variety means a valuation has to be built street by street rather than from a neighbourhood figure.

Halecrest

Mid 1950s, conceived by Herman Hale and originally named College Estates, cottage and ranch designs on raised foundations with wide porches. Halecrest Park is a private swim and tennis club rather than a mandatory association, which is verified parcel by parcel.

Hall of Fame

Sits alongside Halecrest as the north central established pair, with streets named for baseball figures. Same era, same systems profile, and the same likelihood that a long held family home carries decades of undocumented improvement.

South Coast Metro

Attached product, condominiums and townhomes next to South Coast Plaza, the Segerstrom Center and the office employment core. Straddles the Costa Mesa and Santa Ana boundary, so jurisdiction and school assignment both need confirming by address.

South Coast and Wimbledon Village

Attached communities within the Metro area, largely 1970s and 1980s. Polybutylene supply is the item on this era, and association reserves and building envelope questions belong in the file before a listing goes up.

Bristol and Paularino

Mixed attached housing near South Coast Plaza and the arts venues. Conventional associations apply here even though most of the single family city has none, so the resale packet is a step that cannot be skipped.

Downtown Costa Mesa

Along Newport Boulevard and the 19th Street area, small older lots and the oldest surviving housing in the city. Pre war systems, raised foundations and a permit record that frequently predates anything the city holds digitally.

Freedom Homes and the Fairview area tracts

Postwar tract names local agents still use inside the broader quadrants. Consistent original floor plans across a tract make it straightforward to identify what was added later, which is useful when nobody in the family can say.

Canyon Park, Republic Homes, Sea Bluff

Three more tract names that carry meaning locally and none at all on a portal. Marketing an inherited house under the tract name a local buyer searches for is a small thing that changes who sees it.

Where these files stall

Six Costa Mesa Problems an Heir Cannot Answer From Memory

Costa Mesa, California

Each of these needs a document, and in every case the person who could have explained it without one is the person who died.

The city report is mandatory and the clock is short

Municipal Code Title 5, Chapter VIII section 5-120 requires the owner of any residential building to obtain a Report of Residential Building Records from the city upon entering into an agreement of sale, and to file the application within three days of entering into that agreement. Section 5-121 sets fees by council resolution, adds an inspection fee where the owner consents to an inspection, and gives the city thirty days from a completed application to issue the report.

Section 5-123(b) requires the owner to deliver the completed report to the buyer before the transaction completes, with the buyer executing an acknowledgment that is filed with the city within thirty days after closing. Section 5-124 lists ten categories of exempt transaction, including court ordered transfers. Whether a particular estate sale falls into one of them is a question for the estate's attorney, and current administration, fee and turnaround should be confirmed with Building and Safety at the start of escrow.

The garage was converted before anyone kept records

Unpermitted additions and converted garages are the single most common Costa Mesa problem, because the lots are big enough to build on and much of the work predates the records the city holds digitally. The city report is the mechanism by which it becomes official, which is why it matters more here than the same ordinance would elsewhere.

Get ahead of it. Search permit records by address or APN through Building and Safety first, and where the online record is incomplete file a Public Records Act request for permit jackets, approved plans, inspection logs and finals, with the APN and a year range. Compare the result against the Assessor's recorded square footage. Then decide how to sell, knowing what the report will show.

Nobody told the heirs about the sewer lateral

The Costa Mesa Sanitary District maintains about 224.2 miles of main, but the property owner is responsible for maintaining the sewer lateral until past the point of connection with the main, which is usually the middle of the street. There is no point of sale lateral inspection or certification requirement, and no city programme that will do it for you.

CMSD runs a voluntary Sewer Inspection Rebate Program instead, and tells owners to rod laterals annually for roots. On 1950s and 1960s Eastside and Westside stock lined with mature street trees, a lateral video before listing is inexpensive and a root intrusion finding is a routine repair negotiation. Discovering it in escrow, on an estate with no cash reserve, is not routine at all.

There is no association, so there is no file

Costa Mesa is largely a non HOA city on the single family side, which is a genuine advantage in almost every other respect. For an heir it removes something useful: there is no association archive, no architectural approval history and nobody who can say what was authorised in 1988.

The substitute is the city permit file plus a pre listing inspection ordered by the estate. It costs money the estate may not want to spend, and it is still the cheapest way to find out what the house is before a buyer does. Attached product in South Coast Metro, Wimbledon and Bristol Paularino does carry conventional associations, so the resale packet applies there.

The fire hazard map changed in March 2025

Costa Mesa was one of five Orange County cities newly included in the March 2025 CAL FIRE maps, carrying Moderate and High zones and no Very High. Sellers in a flat coastal plain city do not expect this, and an heir working from an older report will not see it at all.

A High zone parcel triggers AB 38: documentation of defensible space compliance under Civil Code 1102.19 and, since 1 July 2025, the fire hardening disclosure covering low cost retrofits, which of them were completed, and known vulnerabilities. Confirm the specific parcel against the state viewer rather than assuming either that the whole city is in or that none of it is.

The neighbouring use is not what the heir imagines

Because the city was never master planned, adjacency is unpredictable. The Westside overlays place residential next to commercial and industrial, and historic industrial uses along 19th Street, particularly boat builders and manufacturers, have only partly converted. Noise, odour and vibration are block by block realities.

The eastern and north eastern side of the city sits nearest John Wayne Airport and inside the airport influence area planning boundary. Where a tract map or deed carries the airport notice language, it gets delivered. An heir who visited on quiet Sunday afternoons has genuinely never experienced the property on a weekday, and should say so rather than describing conditions they did not observe.

The decision

Sell the Costa Mesa House, or Take It On Yourself


The tax rules point in two directions, and in this city the condition of the house is the third vote. A 1961 house needs an owner who intends to work on it.

Sell it

The basis rule is what makes selling efficient. Under IRC section 1014 the basis resets to fair market value at the date of death, so a lifetime of appreciation drops out for income tax purposes and gain runs only from that date forward. A sale soon after death commonly produces close to no gain, and sometimes a small loss after selling costs.

Where the house was held as community property by a married couple, IRC 1014(b)(6) steps up both halves at the first death rather than the decedent's half alone, which is a California advantage most states do not offer. IRC 1223(9) settles the holding period question: property taking its basis under 1014 and sold within a year of death is treated as long term anyway.

The Costa Mesa specific argument is condition. On 1950s and 1960s stock the realistic repair list is galvanised supply, cast iron drains, an obsolete panel, possible aluminium branch wiring and original aluminium windows, plus a lateral that is the owner's responsibility to the centre of the street. An estate rarely has the cash or the appetite to do that work, and a buyer who intends to do it will price it either way.

The honest downside is where the gain is taxed. Recognised inside an unadministered estate or an irrevocable trust it hits compressed brackets, a zero rate ceiling of 3,300 dollars and a 15 percent ceiling of 16,250 dollars, against 545,500 dollars for a single individual, and California taxes capital gains as ordinary income with no preferential rate. Settle who recognises the gain with the estate's accountant before escrow opens, not afterwards.

Keep it, or one heir buys the others out

Proposition 19 is the case for keeping it and it is narrow. For transfers on or after 16 February 2021 the parent to child exclusion applies only to a family home that was the parent's principal residence and becomes the child's principal residence, or to a family farm. A rental or a second home is fully reassessed. If nobody actually moves in, there is no exclusion at all.

The deadlines are the part that gets missed. Claim the homeowners' exemption within one year of the transfer or the date of death, and file form BOE-19-P within three years of death or transfer, or before a transfer to a third party, whichever is earlier. The exclusion also ends if the transferee stops qualifying, so it is a way of living rather than a piece of paperwork.

The cap is the parent's factored base year value plus 1,044,586 dollars for transfers between 16 February 2025 and 15 February 2027. Above that sum, the new taxable value becomes market value minus 1,044,586 dollars. In a city with no special tax and mostly no association dues, a preserved base year value is a larger share of the monthly cost here than it would be in Irvine, which is a real argument in favour of holding.

A buyout between siblings works well in Costa Mesa for a practical reason: the heir who wants the house is usually the one who wants to renovate it. The agreed value comes from the same date of death appraisal, the buying heir finances it, the others are paid through escrow. The honest warning is unchanged. Moving in only to hold the tax base and selling at month twenty gets no section 121 exclusion, which needs two years of ownership and two of use, and forfeits the clean early sale as well.

Why this office

The House Has a Paper Trail. You Just Have Not Seen It Yet.


Paula Aragone has worked Orange County transactions for 23 years, across 900+ transactions and $900M+ sold, and she came to real estate after four years of law school. She holds the CPRES and SRES designations. That is the reason estate and family law attorneys send inherited property files here rather than to a general listing agent.

A Costa Mesa inherited file is a records exercise before it is a marketing exercise. Permit search by address or APN through Building and Safety at 77 Fair Drive. A Public Records Act request where the online record stops short, which it usually does for pre digitisation work, asking for permit jackets, approved plans, inspection logs and finals with the APN and a year range. A lateral video. An inspection ordered by the estate. And the Report of Residential Building Records itself, confirmed with Building and Safety as to current administration, fee and turnaround.

The reason to do all of that before listing rather than after acceptance is simple arithmetic. An estate that discovers an unpermitted addition in week five of escrow negotiates from a position of no information and no time. The same estate holding the permit file and an inspection on day one sets the price with the problem already in it, and usually sells for more.

Nothing here is tax advice or legal advice. This office produces the documents the estate's attorney and accountant need, in the order they need them, and holds the transaction together while the heirs make the decisions that are genuinely theirs.

Questions

Inherited Costa Mesa Property, Answered


The questions heirs raise in the first month, answered for California law and for the way Costa Mesa in particular handles a sale.

My mother left me her Costa Mesa house. What has to happen first?

Establish which procedure the estate is on, because nothing else can proceed until it is settled. A house held in a revocable trust is administered by a successor trustee without a court. A house held in the parent's own name goes through a small estate procedure or a full probate, depending on the size of the estate at the date of death. Nobody can sign a listing agreement, order a report or spend estate funds before that is answered.

Which small estate threshold applies to us?

The one in force on the date of death, not the date you file. For deaths on or after 1 April 2025 the Probate Code 13100 affidavit for personal property reaches 208,850 dollars of gross estate, the 13151 petition to determine succession to real property reaches 750,000 dollars for a California primary residence only, and the 13200 affidavit for real property of small value reaches 69,625 dollars. For deaths between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2025 the first two were both 184,500 dollars.

What is the Report of Residential Building Records and do we have to get one?

It is Costa Mesa's point of sale report under Municipal Code Title 5, Chapter VIII. Section 5-119 says it describes the zoning of the residential building, the number of dwelling units permitted under that zoning classification, and other information relevant to use, occupancy and construction. Section 5-120 requires the owner to obtain it upon entering into an agreement of sale and to apply within three days. Section 5-124 lists ten exempt categories, so confirm your specific transaction with the estate's attorney and with Building and Safety.

How long does the city report take and who delivers it?

Under section 5-121 the city issues the report within thirty days of a completed application and payment, with fees set by council resolution and an inspection fee where the owner consents to an inspection. Section 5-123(b) puts delivery on the owner: the completed report goes to the buyer before the transaction completes, and the buyer executes an acknowledgment which is filed with the city within thirty days after closing. Confirm current administration and turnaround with Building and Safety at the start of escrow rather than assuming.

There is an addition on the house and I have no idea if it was permitted. What do I do?

Find out before a buyer does. Search building permit records by street address or APN through Building and Safety, and where the online record is incomplete, which is common for pre digitisation permits, file a Public Records Act request for all permit jackets, approved plans, inspection logs and final documents, giving the APN and a year range. Compare the result to the Assessor's recorded square footage. Online results are immediate, staff research takes days to weeks and fees apply.

Why does an appraisal matter if we are selling anyway?

Because it fixes your basis, not your list price. IRC section 1014 sets basis at fair market value on the date of death, which is what stands between the family and a taxable gain later. In a full probate a referee appointed under Probate Code 8920 supplies a value and Orange County states it should be returned within sixty days. In a trust nobody supplies it unless the trustee orders it. Get it before the house is cleared and painted.

Will we pay capital gains tax on the sale?

Usually very little on a sale reasonably soon after death, because gain runs only from the date of death value forward, and IRC 1223(9) treats it as long term even over a few months. The variable is who recognises it. Inside an unadministered estate or an irrevocable trust the brackets are compressed, at a 3,300 dollar zero rate ceiling and a 16,250 dollar 15 percent ceiling. California has no preferential capital gains rate. General information, not tax advice.

Can I use the 500,000 dollar exclusion my parents used?

Not as an heir who never lived there. IRC section 121 requires ownership for at least 24 months and use as a residence for at least 24 months out of the five years before the sale, plus no other section 121 exclusion used in the prior two years. Inheriting and selling meets none of that. The stepped up basis under IRC 1014 is the relief that does apply to you, and in most Costa Mesa estates it is worth far more than the exclusion would have been.

If I move in, do I keep my parent's property tax bill?

Only within Proposition 19, and only if you act on time. The exclusion covers a family home that was the parent's principal residence and becomes the child's principal residence. Claim the homeowners' exemption within one year of the transfer or the date of death, file form BOE-19-P within three years of death or transfer or before a transfer to a third party, and understand the cap: the parent's factored base year value plus 1,044,586 dollars for transfers from 16 February 2025 to 15 February 2027.

Who is responsible for the sewer lateral?

The property owner, and further than most people expect. The Costa Mesa Sanitary District maintains about 224.2 miles of main, but the owner maintains the lateral until past the point of connection with the main, usually in the middle of the street. There is no point of sale inspection or certification requirement. CMSD runs a voluntary Sewer Inspection Rebate Program and advises rodding annually for roots. On mature tree lined 1960s streets a lateral video before listing is cheap insurance.

Is my parent's house in a fire hazard zone? It is nowhere near a hillside.

It may be, and this surprises people. Costa Mesa was one of five Orange County cities newly included in the March 2025 CAL FIRE maps, carrying Moderate and High zones with no Very High. A High zone parcel brings AB 38 obligations: defensible space compliance documentation under Civil Code 1102.19 and, since 1 July 2025, the fire hardening disclosure. Check the specific parcel against the state viewer rather than assuming the whole city is affected or none of it is.

Is there an HOA, and where do I get the records?

Most single family Costa Mesa has no association at all, which is one of the real differences from Irvine or Tustin Ranch. That removes a cost and a delay, and it also removes an archive: there is no architectural approval history and nobody to ask what was authorised. Attached product in South Coast Metro, Wimbledon and the Bristol and Paularino area does carry conventional associations, so a resale packet applies there and should be ordered early.

Which high school serves the house?

Newport Mesa Unified serves Costa Mesa, with Costa Mesa High School and Estancia High School as the comprehensive high schools, Costa Mesa Middle and TeWinkle Middle, and elementaries including Adams, California, College Park, Davis, Killybrooke, Paularino, Pomona, Rea, Sonora, Victoria, Whittier, Wilson and Woodland. Certain pockets, primarily on the Eastside, feed Newport Harbor High School instead. That distinction drives buyer behaviour, so confirm it by address with the district before it appears in marketing.

My brother wants to renovate it and I want to be paid out. What happens?

Usually one of three things. He buys your share, using the date of death appraisal as the agreed value and his own financing to fund the payment through escrow. The house is sold and the estate divides the proceeds. Or nobody agrees, and the disagreement moves to a court that can order the property divided or sold, which is slow and expensive for both sides. In Costa Mesa the first route is common, because the sibling who wants the house usually wants the project.

Do I have to complete the seller disclosure if I never lived there?

Whether a specific estate or trust transfer is exempt from delivering the statutory Transfer Disclosure Statement is a question for the estate's attorney, and it turns on how title is held and how the sale is authorised. Either way, a known material fact has to be disclosed. In Costa Mesa that means answering from the permit file, the city report and an inspection the estate ordered, marking genuinely unknown items unknown, and never describing conditions you did not observe.

Where is the Orange County probate court, and does that matter to me?

Probate is heard at the Costa Mesa Justice Complex, 3390 Harbor Blvd, Costa Mesa. The probate assistance line is 657-622-8452 and case information is available through the county's probate case access portal. For a Costa Mesa family it is often a short drive, which is convenient, but proximity does not change the timeline: Probate Code 8800 requires the inventory and appraisal within four months after letters are first issued, and 12200 contemplates a final distribution or status report within a year.

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Pull the Permit File Before You Pick a Price


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If you have inherited a Costa Mesa property, the first work is the permit history and the city report, not the listing. Call or text, or ask the estate's attorney to make the first call on your behalf.

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