Selling Dad's House
Where to find help when you're settling a parent's estate.
By Pat Mertz Esswein, Associate Editor
From Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine, May 2007
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Jean Poitras lost her father to cancer with only a few months' warning in the fall of 2004. As Robert Eades's only child and the executor of his estate, Poitras, now 51, was charged with clearing out and selling his home of 26 years, in Arlington, Va. When Poitras arrived at her dad's house -- a few hours north of her home near Richmond -- she faced a houseful of furniture and miscellany, plus her stepmother's belongings, which had languished there since her death eight years before. She was uncertain where and how to begin.
Many of us will have to walk through that door after our parents pass on. It's a rite of passage rife with complicated feelings and memories. Siblings may share the work of cleaning out the house, but the executor has the responsibility -- and liability -- for any financial and legal decisions associated with the sale of the home and its contents.
If you're the executor, you may need outside help to divvy up and clear out a lifetime's accumulation of stuff, piece together a financial puzzle, prepare the house for sale and put it on the market.
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A first pass
Getting a handle on your parent's financial life is the first priority. To keep the homeowners policy in force, ask the insurance company to change the name of the insured to the estate; that way, you ensure that property-damage and liability coverage stay in force. Continue to pay the mortgage (if any) and utility bills. As soon as possible, change the locks on the house -- you never know who might have a key.
Scout through the house for wallets, checkbooks, financial statements, information about safety-deposit boxes, birth certificates, insurance policies, stock certificates, and so on. Did Dad write a will, and do you know where it is? Jeanne K. Smith, a professional organizer in Palo Alto, Cal., says that many seniors don't keep all their paperwork together and may have filed it in unexpected places. Keep any keys you find in one location so that they can eventually be matched to the proper locks.
As Poitras began her Herculean task, she discovered a card in her dad's mail from Debbie Miller, a real estate agent who specializes in "selling the family home." Miller is certified by the National Association of Realtors as a "seniors real estate specialist." She gave Poitras deadlines for various tasks in order to meet an agreed-upon on-sale date. The timeline helped motivate Poitras throughout the lonely weeks of work.
Agents and professional organizers who specialize in estates can do all or part of the work, offer tips for divvying up the mementos and disposing of the detritus of your parents' lives, and -- especially if you are from out of town -- help you find other service providers. Agents will charge their usual sales commission and a per-project fee or hourly rate for managing or performing preparatory work. Most organizers charge $50 to $100 an hour, depending on the size of the project and their level of involvement.
Order out of chaos
Parents who grew up during the Great Depression often adopted a "We might need it someday" attitude and may never have thrown anything out. Plus, age or illness may have made it hard for them to make decisions or act on them. The bottom line: You could have a mountain of stuff to sort through. Organizers advise you to take it one room at a time. For each item, decide whether to keep it, donate it, sell it or trash it.
The 80/20 rule. If you and your siblings get hung up on the 20% of things with emotional or monetary value, professional organizer Barry Izsak recommends that you set them aside and focus on the 80% no one cares about: the Tupperware and lawn tools.
Pros like Smith and Miller can offer ideas for fairly or creatively dividing things among family members. Or consult Who Gets Grandma's Yellow Pie Plate, published by the University of Minnesota Extension Service ($12.50; www.yellowpieplate.umn.edu).