I’m preparing for a worst case scenario (parents refuse to downsize, refuse to move to LTC, keep kicking the can down the road because everything is fine…). If they disregard my advice to downsize now that they’re cognizant all I can do is let them fail and use an emergency like a fall or an accident to talk to the ER doctor, convince him they’re not safe at home and move them to LTC or AL, somewhere they’re supervised at.
At least 2 fully furnished houses would have to go, these are large, old, but renovated houses: one is 2,700 square feet and the other 1,600, both measurements without counting the front garden and backyard. Completely furnished with stuff from several generations, most of it regular stuff not worth much.
I have zero experience dealing with estate sales and to me it looks daunting: How do I make sure potential buyers don’t low-ball me? Should I ask several local realtors first? How do I choose one to trust? Do I need a realtor? I live on another state and would want to expedite this but I just don’t know if waiting for a better offer would make sense.
How much time did you need to close the sale?
The biggest piece of advice is do everything possible ahead of time. Make sure any Will or Trust is rock solid. Make sure deeds and things are located and filed safely away. Anything possible.
It toook my wife’s family an extra year to sell her grandpa’s house because a wealthy greedy aunt wanted more money and was pissed she was being excluded from getting anything from the house. Getting things down in a proper will would have cut a lot of that off ahead of time instead of proving that grandpa intentionally excluded the greedy daughter. They also then found out they were missing a few documents (I don’t remember everything, wanna say a marriage certificate they needed to prove some stuff to county with) so just make sure you have all of that possible now. If you can get your name on things I’d imagine it would make it even easier but not sure.
Agreed! Get financials in order, get a decent lawyer that will walk you through the necessary steps together as a family prior to death.