Selling an Old Hand-Built Home

[Matt Souza]

Hi BP!

Hoping someone on here can help. My grandmother is selling her cottage that my grandpa built by hand over 30 years ago. How would you go about estimating the value of the house when built for tax purposes?

I know the tax elements can get pretty complicated when one owner on the title dies. But I was more curious how we would estimate value when built, when we clearly don't have receipts for construction costs. Should we be very concerned with something like that? I just want to make sure my grandma isn't audited and we randomly came up with a number for the property. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!