My dad is 94 and many of you have seen his 'progression' here in this forum. Since covid started, he has had to move from assisted living to skilled nursing due to a downturn in his health. We have tried to get him to 2 different memory care facilities but was turned down by both because of his continuing medical needs. His dementia is worsening and he is unable to walk anymore -- he is confined to a wheelchair. He has not been in his house for over a year. It sits like it did since the day he went to the hospital a year ago in September, and was not able to return home. As guardian, I am responsible for keeping it maintained, although I haven't really done much except hire a yard service to maintain the yard. All his stuff is still there and there is no chance he will be able to move home. He is on self-pay at skilled nursing and has enough funds to last a while. I still pay all utilities on it plus property taxes and yard care. The house itself is paid for. I am very afraid of something happening to it. It is an old house. It sits back in the woods in a grove of very large fir trees. In talking to my guardianship attorney this week, she suggested looking into selling it. We are concerned about what the 'basis' might be, however, and if it is going to be too large a tax bill, we might hang on to it. My dad still asks to move home which can't happen. To sell his house would send him into a spiral and because of the guardianship, he will receive copies of all legal papers. This may be more than I can do emotionally and I'm just not sure what to do.
A Place for Mom provided me NO CHARGE, name of 3 movers who do all the above mentioned donate, pack, store, move hubby's stuff into his room at assisted living. It wasn't any more expensive than if I had other movers just "move " to just one location. It was a big help to me. They took a few of my items to estate sale, as well. My husband was not in memory care at the time, still home, but they would have gone to facility if I needed them to. The company name was Smooth Transitions, "your single solution for senior moves".
Good luck. Make up your mind, get it done, then be free of worries of how you will do it. Let other's help.
After years of elder care adventures, Both my folks FINALLY went into assisted living in 2017 leaving me with 5 acres and a nasty rundown house full of stuff. I also had Conservatorship. No way was I going to mess around fixing the place up. It would have taken thousands of dollars and not really increased the value very much.
I was only surviving kid, 60 plus years old and 3 states away.
I cleaned out the personal belongings, paperwork, nasty stuff from the fridge, 40 trash bags from the house and garage to the dump, left the old ratty furniture and sold it as is. The land was valuable so it sold for a good price right away.
The money allowed me to keep them in a very nice place and later memory care for dad after mom died. Dad died just last month. Using the house funds I spent over $200K since 2017 for their care.
We get to a point where we can’t let the dementia over rule common sense decisions. I think you’re there.
I dealt with sale of deceased , unmarried aunt's house. Much worry and tension until house sold. Up to that point my cousins and I responsible for any problems concerning house! Sad to see it go(family gathering place), but glad to be free of the worry!
Do you have to show him the papers if you have Guardianship?
If your dad was the only owner, then the cost basis will be the selling price minus the price he paid for it. Depending on how long that has been, it could be a substantial tax bill.
If you inherit the house instead, the cost basis for taxes will be the value of it as of your dad's date of death. In other words, if he dies, and you sell the house soon after, the taxes will be only on the difference between the value on his date of death and the selling price -- very little tax.
Example: My folks bought their house for $45,500 in 1968 as JTWROS. My dad died in 2018, and the house was appraised at $1.7 million (I know -- crazy California real estate). If I sell the house now because my mother has been out of it for over a year, she'd pay taxes on the difference between the $1.7 million and the sales price -- likely now around $2 million. (See: crazy California real estate)
If my brother and I instead inherit that house tomorrow (for example), it'll appraise for $2 million and we'd pay taxes on the difference between that and what it sells for.
Hope that makes sense. Bottom line, you need an appraisal of the house as of your mom's date of death if she lived there, too, and your dad inherited her half as survivor. You might as well get that done if you haven't.