Probate and estates
Someone died, and now there is a house.
Nobody hands you a set of instructions for this. Here is the order things usually happen in, what you can safely leave until later, and why you probably have more time than you have been told.
I lost a parent, and I remember the house being the thing everyone kept asking about while I was still trying to get through the week. So I will say the useful part first: in most cases there is no deadline forcing you to sell quickly, and the people telling you otherwise are often the ones who want to buy it cheaply.
What is worth doing early is finding out what the house is worth and who is legally able to sell it. Those two facts make every later decision simpler, and neither of them obliges you to do anything.
The order things happen in
Four steps, and the hard one comes last on purpose.
- 01
Find out who has authority
Somebody has to be legally able to sign for the house. Your attorney will tell you whether that is already settled or whether the court still has to appoint someone. Nothing binding happens before that.
- 02
Get the house valued
This can happen while the legal side is still moving. An estate often needs a date-of-death value as well as a current one, and I can help you understand the difference.
- 03
Decide, together if there are several of you
Sell, keep, or one sibling buys the others out. A written valuation makes this conversation shorter and less painful than another family phone call will.
- 04
Then the contents, then the sale
The cleanout is usually the hardest part and it is almost never as urgent as it feels. Take the time. Houses that are sorted properly sell better than houses that were emptied in a weekend.
Practical help
Cleanouts, estate sales, movers, storage.
I keep a short list of people I have used and would use again. I take nothing for referring you to any of them.
Cleanout crews
They clear what is left after the family has taken what they want. Most will haul, donate and dispose in one visit.
Estate sale companies
They price and sell the contents, usually over a weekend, and take a percentage. Worth a call before anything is thrown away.
Movers
For the things that are being kept, or going to another family member's house.
Storage
Useful when the family needs time to decide and the house needs to be empty.
Contractors and handymen
Only for the work that actually changes the sale price. I will tell you when something is not worth doing.
Common questions
- The house is in probate. Can you still help?
- Yes. I work with estates regularly, alongside the probate attorney. There are usually steps that need to happen before a sale can be signed, and your attorney will confirm where your estate is in that process. In the meantime we can still get you the value and a plan.
- The house is full of belongings. What do I do?
- You take what matters to you first. After that there are estate sale companies and cleanout crews who do this for a living, and I can put you in touch with people I trust. You do not have to sort a lifetime of things by yourself, and there is no deadline on it.
Find out what the house is worth.
A written valuation you can take to the family, the attorney, or the court. Free, and there is no obligation to sell.
No pressure, no obligation, and no one will chase you.