@Opus 17 @pk
I feel a bit uncomfortable with using the income tax concept of constructive receipt for what is fundamentally a transfer/estate/gift tax issue.
Do you have any authority showing an application of Treas. Reg. 1.451-2 - https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/26/1.451-2 - or similar to an inheritance of a asset?
I would think the issue is more akin to the completed gift doctrine of estate/gift taxation. I.e. The transfer is not "complete" until the donor no longer has dominion and control. Also, it is law school 101 that a completed gift requires "delivery" to the donee. So its quite possible that delivery of foreign real estate doesn't magically happen on the date of death. Though exactly that can happen in some US states.
In some states, the estate owns the real estate (assuming no non-probate transfer mechanism) and the estate will later deed the real estate to the inheritor. In others the inheritor owns the real estate as of the date of death subject to a right of the estate to get it back if needed to settle estate debts. This matters a lot for who has to pay real estate taxes and other carrying costs during the estate administration.
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