I was the sole caregiver for my father. He passed last fall. I am now overwhelmed with handling the process of clearing out and selling his home that he had for over 55 years. Thank you,
fiorini01, not an easy task. Been there, done that. Even though my parents didn't have a lot of "stuff" [as George Carlin would say], it was still an overwhelming job.
One really great suggestion I got here on the forum. Anything of your Dad's you want to keep, swap it out with the same item you have in your house. Such as I swapped out lamps, as I wasn't attached to the lamps I already had, but liked the ones my parents had. I was using old candy tins for paperclips, so I swapped out pudding dishes my Mom had. Even swapped out a couple of wastebaskets, etc.
Bring home all the photo albums, those you can go through later.
I had called in an Estate person but since none of the paintings were Van Gogh, and none of the furniture was from Buckingham Palace, I never heard back from the company.
Call in Salvation Army and Goodwill. Oh, Goodwill where I live still will accept old VHS tapes :)
I hired a handyman that I knew to help me with "stuff" in the basement. He moved it all into the garage. And trashed items that were junk.
A plumber came out to fix a problem. When he saw my Mom's old china cabinet he fell in love with it. The china cabinet now had a new home :)
Then I called the junk hauling. Anything they could donate they would, and we would get the receipt. Anything donated you can use on your Dad's income taxes for next year if it is above the new tax rules from last year. Check with a tax advisor.
I sold the house "as is". The idea of remodeling or even painting was beyond what I wanted to do. A flipper bought the house pretty close to the professional Appraiser's price. Make sure you sell the house within one year of your Dad's passing [my heartfelt sympathy] so the $250,000 allowed deduction can be used to help offset any taxable capital gains for your Dad's next year income tax. Again, check with a tax advisor, as trying to keep up with tax changes is exhausting.
When I gained guardianship of my father and my mother moved in with me, my parents were cash poor due to my father's bad spending habits as vascular dementia took hold, but they still had several rental properties in additional to their 54 year old home with a beautiful large yard and garden space. Nothing had been painted since I last painted the house during high school summer breaks. Every bathroom and kitchen fixture was original and 54 years old. I had replaced most of the light fixtures over the years after my parents decided they liked ceiling fans. I refreshed the paint in their 2BR 1BA rental house and put in some new commercial grade laminate flooring, then sold it to fund Dad's MC and to pack and refresh the main house.
Some things I packed myself and with help from one of my brothers - things I knew where they were and my mother wanted to keep. Then I hired a moving company to pack or discard things out of closets, dressers and bookcases. I got a better rate because I agree to use their people "as available" when they were not working scheduled jobs. Some days there was no one, other days 1-4 people were available for 2-3 hours at the end of a day and some days I had a whole crew because someone canceled on them unexpectedly. A local charity that resales clothing, furniture and household items came and picked it all up once it was packed. Then I had the movers come in and move everything down from the attic onto the main floor and repeated the process with the attic contents. Then I moved on to the partial basement... Once the house was empty, a house cleaning service gave it a basic cleaning (fast, easy, and cheap since the house was empty). I spent some money bringing the house up to date a bit: a fresh coat of neutral colored paint throughout, couple of new coats of poly on the hardwood floors, a new metal roof, new heat pump, new bathroom fixtures and medium grade closeout kitchen cabinets. Other than the heat pump, family provided most of the labor for the updates (construction is a multi generational family occupation). We had just enough money left to add on a mud room and bring the laundry upstairs (something I had wanted to do for years but my father would not agree). The updates doubled the appraised value and made the house much easier to sale since a lot of younger people will not have the money for multiple major updates in the first few years after purchasing a house and a lot of other people don't want to go through the whole update process.
If the estate has some money, you can use it to hire help to pack and clean the house, even consult with a real estate agent to see if updates would improve the appraisal and let it sale quicker. Some charities may be willing to bring their own people in for the clearing out phase just for the donation of goods. If memory serves, you can even borrow money secured by the house to make updates if all the heirs agree.
I agree with again but before I did that I would get rid of the junk. My MIL had a closet filled with magazines up to the first shelf. My DH bundled them 20 a bundle. They covered a whole parking space. They went to the recyling place. Books went to the library, some sell them. If old VCR tapes, I would trash. I donated a lot to our Church yardsale and to a local thrift shop. Moms furniture went to Habitat for Humanity. An estate sale co will only take what they think will make a profit. Some auction co. take a lot more. People we know just sold brothers house. Called a guy in and he gave them 2k for the stuff in the house.
I would not do a yardsale. Very time consuming for the money u receive.
Clothes can be donated. Take a room at a time. Not so overwhelming.
Very specific helpful advice. I basically followed his procedure, it kept what could have been an overwhelming meds into an organized project. Not a happy time, but it has to be done.
Is there anything of worth in the home? If so, could have an auction house or similar org come and go through things. They'll take what's good and sell it and take a %.
For the general cleaning up of stuff, ask around for a local cleaning lady who can help you with the clearing out and would probably be paid by the hour.
You could hire someone to help you organize the smaller but useful items for a yard sale. Or just donate it to a charity if that's too much work (which it often is).
One really great suggestion I got here on the forum. Anything of your Dad's you want to keep, swap it out with the same item you have in your house. Such as I swapped out lamps, as I wasn't attached to the lamps I already had, but liked the ones my parents had. I was using old candy tins for paperclips, so I swapped out pudding dishes my Mom had. Even swapped out a couple of wastebaskets, etc.
Bring home all the photo albums, those you can go through later.
I had called in an Estate person but since none of the paintings were Van Gogh, and none of the furniture was from Buckingham Palace, I never heard back from the company.
Call in Salvation Army and Goodwill. Oh, Goodwill where I live still will accept old VHS tapes :)
I hired a handyman that I knew to help me with "stuff" in the basement. He moved it all into the garage. And trashed items that were junk.
A plumber came out to fix a problem. When he saw my Mom's old china cabinet he fell in love with it. The china cabinet now had a new home :)
Then I called the junk hauling. Anything they could donate they would, and we would get the receipt. Anything donated you can use on your Dad's income taxes for next year if it is above the new tax rules from last year. Check with a tax advisor.
I sold the house "as is". The idea of remodeling or even painting was beyond what I wanted to do. A flipper bought the house pretty close to the professional Appraiser's price. Make sure you sell the house within one year of your Dad's passing [my heartfelt sympathy] so the $250,000 allowed deduction can be used to help offset any taxable capital gains for your Dad's next year income tax. Again, check with a tax advisor, as trying to keep up with tax changes is exhausting.
Some things I packed myself and with help from one of my brothers - things I knew where they were and my mother wanted to keep. Then I hired a moving company to pack or discard things out of closets, dressers and bookcases. I got a better rate because I agree to use their people "as available" when they were not working scheduled jobs. Some days there was no one, other days 1-4 people were available for 2-3 hours at the end of a day and some days I had a whole crew because someone canceled on them unexpectedly. A local charity that resales clothing, furniture and household items came and picked it all up once it was packed. Then I had the movers come in and move everything down from the attic onto the main floor and repeated the process with the attic contents. Then I moved on to the partial basement... Once the house was empty, a house cleaning service gave it a basic cleaning (fast, easy, and cheap since the house was empty). I spent some money bringing the house up to date a bit: a fresh coat of neutral colored paint throughout, couple of new coats of poly on the hardwood floors, a new metal roof, new heat pump, new bathroom fixtures and medium grade closeout kitchen cabinets. Other than the heat pump, family provided most of the labor for the updates (construction is a multi generational family occupation). We had just enough money left to add on a mud room and bring the laundry upstairs (something I had wanted to do for years but my father would not agree). The updates doubled the appraised value and made the house much easier to sale since a lot of younger people will not have the money for multiple major updates in the first few years after purchasing a house and a lot of other people don't want to go through the whole update process.
If the estate has some money, you can use it to hire help to pack and clean the house, even consult with a real estate agent to see if updates would improve the appraisal and let it sale quicker. Some charities may be willing to bring their own people in for the clearing out phase just for the donation of goods. If memory serves, you can even borrow money secured by the house to make updates if all the heirs agree.
I would not do a yardsale. Very time consuming for the money u receive.
Clothes can be donated. Take a room at a time. Not so overwhelming.
For the general cleaning up of stuff, ask around for a local cleaning lady who can help you with the clearing out and would probably be paid by the hour.
You could hire someone to help you organize the smaller but useful items for a yard sale. Or just donate it to a charity if that's too much work (which it often is).