If there is a management company they may be your best contact for the sale of the house itself.
Most people do use the on-site sales office. My parents used another realtor when they bought the place, so I’m going to check them both out. There are also a few neighbors I’m acquainted with that I can speak to.
When my wife’s parents did this, the estate sale company handled the cleanout as well.
Do either the junk removal or estate sale people help with estimating the value, filling out forms, etc for goods that will be donated rather than junked? Mainly it would be furniture, ornaments and small kitchen stuff. Or would I have to handle that myself? (I have visions of my Dad laboriously itemizing every t-shirt and paperback that went to Amvets. I can’t imagine doing that for a whole houseful of stuff.)
I’m concerned about my mom’s home office. She has a couple file cabinets of paperwork. Much of it quite old. Bank statements for example.
But there might be important paperwork too. Stock certificates, paperwork for land they sold. Recent tax returns? She still pays income tax on her investment income.
She’s still alive. It will be daunting when I have to deal with this paperwork.
Professional Estate Sales and Auctioneers are required by law in most states to keep an accurate recording of what was sold for purposes of reporting to the estate. Not sure, but doubt if a junk removal company would be required to do so.
It is daunting. It’s even worse now that many things are handled electronically. I know it can be hard, but do try to have conversations about where everything is and what she wants done. Everyone thinks they will always have plenty of time for that, but my dad’s death was sudden and so was my mom’s decline. I can’t imagine how hard it would have been if they hadn’t put me on their accounts and made me a trustee ahead of time.
Okay, I have a question.
The house my mother lives in is an 1830s Italianate Victorian, in a very, very small town that is conveniently located near nothing whatsoever. She had a leaky roof that she did not deal with for more than a year, so there is a lot of damage to the ceilings and walls throughout the house. The wiring and plumbing has probably never been upgraded, ever. It would probably cost several hundred thousand just to bring the house up to code, but in restored, fixed up condition, the house would only be worth about $75K maybe, because of the remote, rural location.
So let’s say I managed to clear that house of about three generations’ worth of junk (as people have died off, my mother has done nothing to dispose of the junk, so it continues to accumulate, along with her horde of cats, which is a whole other issue – de-pee-ifying the house). So now, let’s say I’ve got an empty house, which will and most likely should be condemned. The land is probably worth a little something.
WTF do I do with that house? Do I just put the property for sale as is and let the demolition of the house be the buyer’s problem? What if nobody wants to buy because of A) the remote, rural location and B) the house is condemned? Then am I stuck with a falling-apart house and/or the cost of hiring the demo to be done myself?
Note: I have always had a fantasy about turning that house into a bed & breakfast but that is now off the table because A) Mom didn’t do any maintenance or repairs in the last 20 years and it would be too expensive to bring it up to code for commercial purposes and B) the town where this house is is so remote/rural, there would be no way to keep it occupied even as a B&B. There’s no market for tourism within 50 miles, nobody ever stops or stays in that town for any reason. There just wouldn’t be enough traffic going through there for that to be a viable option. And also, I live 1,000 miles away from this house. My sister lives about 100 miles away, but she has a very busy life, much bigger and many more fish to fry and has zero interest in handling this at all. Or even thinking about it. It will become my problem.
We had a couple of estate sale people come in and hold that sale. I removed all papers and obvious valuables, took a lot of clothes to charities, and they came in about a month beforehand, threw out (with our permission) a lot of junk, and put price stickers on all the dishes, pots and pans, furniture, etc. Some of the collectibles they did sell for a couple hundred dollars (every family seems to have one or two semi-valuable antiques). The sale, unfortunately, was on a weekend when the whole county was also having estate sales, block garage sales, and a lot was unsold. We made a small profit, but their fee right up front was $2000! They said they knew a place that bought up the remains of yard sales, didn’t pay a lot, but would come and pick up stuff and sell it themselves in a big barn somewhere out of town. We decided we were done futzing around trying to sell old forks and spoons and shoes … So, my brother took some furniture, and he and I hauled tons of stuff, old beds, broken things, old linens and pillows to the curb for trash pickup. (luckily the trash pickup there takes anything). We did sell an old sewing machine on eBay (I had UPS professionally pack it for shipping) and my mom’s ancient refrigerator! A couple of guys wrapped it up, put it on a pallet, and a truck took it across the country (I hope that worked out well). A lot of stuff we just left in the basement - we had renters move in right away and told them to use whatever they wanted or throw it out or give it away. So they brought in some of their furniture and used the dining room set and cabinet. They’re still renting a year later and hope to buy the house next year. I hope so!
I don’t really care if I make anything on a sale. I just want the house cleared out without having to spend days or weeks sorting through crap and hauling it around town myself. I’m basically on my own, with one small SUV and maybe a little reluctant assistance from one of my two teenagers here and there.
If selling off some of the stuff can offset the price of getting rid of the rest, great.
My inlaws live in a retirement community, tho not gated. From what my MIL has told me, often when a resident dies and the family just wants the house and stuff gone, they invite the neighbors in to take whatever they’d like. That might be another option for disposing of a portion of the household stuff.
Hmmm. Not that kind of neighborhood, I don’t think. Although it is kind of amusing to imaging hordes of golf carts descending on the place and picking it clean.
You may want to get a hitch put on your SUV so you can have the option of pulling a trailer to/from storage or landfill.
Also, there is a neighborhood site called Nextdoor that is pretty active in my area. You could check if it or something similar is going near your parents’ house and post stuff for sale on that. I see stuff get posted every day and it’s gone within hours.
Dogzilla, you might want to contact a architectural salvage company and have them come in and strip out any fixtures, paneling, scrollwork, etc., that’s got any kind of value whatsoever. If that 1830’s house had original millwork, you might make more money from the pieces than you would from selling the entire house.
My parents’ house absolutely full of book, many which had not been touched in decades. Half the weight of the garbage was probably unsaleable books.
In fact, the money we did find, was larger bills still in the bank envelopes, buried in the file drawers or under stuff in the chest of drawers.
Besides you going through the stuff and keeping sentimental items, ask your parent’s friends and other relatives if there is stuff they want.
No one here knows everything that is salable in someone’s estate. Keep that in mind when thinking of hauling massive amounts of stuff to the dump.