Have the house/property appraised in case of inheritance or gift

A property never has just one value, as the value is viewed from very different perspectives. There is market value, fair value, standard value, and so on; inheritance law, tax law, co-heirs & co. consider it based on very different principles. And last but not least, notary fees are also partly based on the value. I would consult a tax advisor – specifically one who is also proficient in structuring matters (for example, to burden a house during the lifetime of the future testator with his right of residence, which reduces the price). It can be helpful if an advisor can read a law between the lines.

Wonderful, thanks - I have already saved the page. It brings clarity to the confusion

- yes, a tax advisor will be the next step. Can you actually have a right of residence registered for a person who does not live there, if necessary, to lower the price? Probably not, right? We don’t want to "pull a rabbit out of the hat" too much, but if that would be the little extra needed, it might be a good consideration. Thanks for the food for thought!

The documents about the inheritance of another house made us a bit scared. An extremely high value was set there, an achievable rent apparently based only on the bare square meters, which would have been absolutely unrealistic for the condition of that house at the time. According to the documents, there was also a lengthy dispute; unfortunately, it is no longer possible to find out how it all ended. However, this was already a good 30 years ago.

You can generally have a life usufruct on an apartment registered for anyone, whether the person actually lives there or not does not matter. However, one should not take such matters lightly, once it is registered, it remains in the land register.

Just as a note:
Basically, one should also be aware of [§ 42 AO] (legal abuse of arrangements) in such cases, although this is almost never pursued by the tax authorities because it is extremely difficult to prove (own experience).

However, I agree with 11ant that especially with a high property value, a tax advisor can be very worthwhile.
In particular, if the value is higher than the exemption amount (cf. [§ 16 Erbschaftsteuergesetz]) which is available to you under the Inheritance Tax Act (every 10 years).

Can one actually also - if necessary - have a right of residence registered for a person not living there,

I certainly already mentioned that I am not a lawyer. But let's assume the nephew of the best friend of the later testatrix is currently trekking indefinitely in the Himalayas. So a non-relative, non-life partner, non-heir, and currently not exercising a right of residence. From my point of view, these are not reasons to prevent granting him a right of residence. The younger he is, the more his right of residence affects a purchase price. just wrote more about this recently, so I don’t need to repeat it.

Just dumb if he then gets the idea to want to live there

No, good: the suspicion of abuse of design can hardly be refuted better