Parents house will be passed in will, worried about red tape

[Jake Keating]

A few years ago I helped my (retired) parents buy their most recent house by directly giving them a $100k cash down payment, and they would like to leave the house to me when they pass in thanks for the assistance (it ended up helping keep their mortgage extremely low since they are on a fixed income).

They are very worried that it will somehow get caught up in probate or red tape when they pass even if my name is spelled out in the will, and wanted to see about just adding me to the title or something so that there is a seamless transition without any hassle. Is this even possible (adding my name to the title), or are there other options we haven’t even thought about that we can discuss? 

Anyway, any insight for an admitted newbie to all this stuff would be appreciated!

Jake

[Ashish Acharya]

@Jake Keating ,

It is actually better to inherit the house after they pass because you will get a Step-up basis in the house. That basically means if you turn around and sell the house, you will pay no taxes. 

If there is a Will, that will avoid probate.