In talking with a financial advisor, I should clean out the house. Clean it up for renting to generate income for her stay. My parents were pack rats that never threw out anything. They grew up in the depression.
Should I try to do a couple massive garage sales or should I hire estate clearing house? The house is 300 miles away. I do have friend that can help out. Any advise on which path?
I hired a specialist who came in with a crew of people. They spent a full five days sorting, displaying, and pricing the items in my parents' house, then held a sale that lasted for one day. We had 500 people go through the house, they sold $17,000 worth of stuff, and even then it hardly looked like anything sold. Fortunately, they also had a contact for someone to come in and clear out the rest of the things that didn't sold. It took that crew an additional three days to haul out everything, and it only cost me $1600 for that service.
You want that house cleared out and on the rental market ASAP, so I recommend taking the route that achieves that goal as quickly as possible, because rental income is where the bigger money is, not in the estate sale.
We gave personal items to family members who wanted them. Donated pantry items and clothing to lacal charities. Sold what we could through FB market place and then hired an Estate Liquidator to clean out the rest. They sold some large furniture (that we were not able to sell) to wholesellers. That reduced our cost of their services. They donated what they could and gave us donation receipts for tax purposes. They brought a dumpster and cleared the rest.
In the past when my parents passed we tried estate sales and basically broke even. It wasn't worth it.
We did pay the estate Liquidator but it wasn't huge and far less trauma and work than the estate sale route.
On attorney advice, I've made advance funeral arrangements for our LO. Those were paid out of the proceeds of the house sale.
This IS a good time to sell real estate and we don't know what the future holds regarding prices and appreciation/ depreciation.
So in a nut shell: keep accurate records, use an estate Liquidator, sell the real estate and manage care with the proceeds from the sale of personal property and real estate.
I also considered an estate clearing house but there were many things we wanted to keep. My brother and I ended up traveling and going through the house. We had a "keep" section, a "give away' section and a "throw away" section. I am glad I did it. She had saved so many things that I was not aware of. Precious things. She had saved valentines cards that I had received from my elementary friends (can you believe that!) It was hard and incredibly emotional but also cathartic. You would be amazed how many demons we exercised during that event. They were farmers and also pack rats.
Not sure about your circumstance and if you could have a hybrid of estate planning and reviewing the items. I am glad I chose the route I did. Again, very hard but it closed a chapter.
I wish you strength and determination. You will get through this!
I agree that you should hire a company to handle this. And professional cleaners once it's emptied out. On mom's dime, of course. Why should YOU have to do all that work, especially since you do not live in the vicinity?
I would NOT rent the house. I would SELL it ASAP. Renting from afar will be difficult and more money will be spent on having someone local manage it for you. Too much hassle, IMHO.
Property managers aren't really that expensive -- less than 10% of the monthly rent is all. We have three properties in two states and live in a third state. It's not an issue at all with property managers handling them.
An Estate sale will cost you a % of the "profits"
A garage sale is a PITA (pain in the...)
Is there really truly anything worth anything?
I would take a week and go through what is there.
Ask any siblings to join you if you wish.
Take what is near and dear to you and family.,
then make a good, level headed assessment of what is there.
If things can be donated contact the donation site of your choice then
Get a dumpster or contact one of the Junk removal companies.
Many will go through the items again and donate or sell what they can for scrap then the rest gets a trip to the landfill.
Get a dumpster or call one of the Junk removing companies.
I would seriously reconsider renting the property.
I would sell.
To manage a property from 300 miles away is a nightmare. Even managing from 50 miles is difficult.
Many communities now will want you to have a "licensed" management company if you are not managing it yourself.
and for rental property you may have to get inspected and pay village, county or city fees for licensing/permits. (and there may be separate fire codes you have to follow)
It is nothing but headache and a lot of work.
(not to mention depending on where the house is in order to legally rent it the house may have to go through inspections from Building and Zoning as well as Fire Department and to bring it up to code would probably be cost prohibitive)
Clear it out. I would do this myself if there is a chance that they hid money or valuables.
Then sell the house.
Talk to a realtor about the best way to do this. "As is" or do you spend some to get the most back.
I rented a 30 yd dumpster and went through the house and threw most of it away. Filled the dumpster up. After that it just looked like someone lived there. Now, I take a few days each month and go back. I found an online auction place local. They will go through the house and sell everything through the auction. They can even sell the house!
I didn't go that route, too many personal items & things I need to go through. So, each time I go back I take a few loads to the auction. My brother lives near the house and helps me when I'm there. They sell it and it pays for the utilities to keep the house going usually.
I know this is the long way. I could have thrown it all away, but they had a lot of nice items that I just can't bring myself to throw away. I feel like I would do my parents a disservice to just throw their stuff away. I also wish I had found the auction place before throwing so much away. I think I could have made a lot of money on stuff I threw away.
I have found things I never thought I would find. I found the marriage licenses of my great-grandparents on both my mom and dads side. I found many personal documents of relatives that have passed. I'm not sure what to do with this stuff. I hate to throw it out. I don't have children and my nieces and nephews do not want it. I feel it's our family history and will just be gone when I'm gone.
Once everything is cleaned out, I will sell the property. It's sad to have to do this. Every time I go back, I feel like I've lost mom again even though she is still alive. I miss her.
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