Even if it’s not in an area of LA County where people build McMansions, the real estate value of land in that region has increased so much over the years that if you end up owning the home it’ll be easy to pay someone to deal with all the issues relating to its being a hoarder house and you’ll still enjoy a profit at the end. I work in commercial real estate and have “junked out” a lot of properties. A straight junk out is not crazy expensive relative to the value of real estate, like for a full house it’ll be a few truckloads and the price will be in the low four figures, but nothing insane. The junk haulers will have it junked out in probably less than 8 hours. When they go after a property that has just been filled with junk they aren’t fucking around, they’re speed pulling stuff out and chucking it into their dump trucks.
There’s a number of scenarios you’re faced with for fixing the house without you personally having to do it:
Literally sell everything as is, putting the junk out responsibility on the buyer.
Pay for the junk out, then sell as is.
Pay for the junk out, then pay to have the carpet ripped up and replaced with the cheapest you can get (this isn’t nearly as expensive as you think, rental properties sometimes do this as frequently as every 3 years and we still make a profit)–I mention carpet because it’s almost certainly ruined in a hoarder house. Then pay to have all the walls repainted and any glaring visible issues like broken windows fixed. This is basically resetting the house to a “clean” slate. It won’t handle certain things that are often very important to buyers, like updating kitchen appliances, relatively new HVAC system, relatively new roof etc.
Pay for the junk out and full remodel to get it to pristine state.
Depending on your local real estate market, each of these options will have different financials behind them. In a market where land is very valuable and old, run down houses are not, it’s almost certainly going to be the case that the buyer is going to be buying it for the land. In that case your best bet is to literally just sell it as is without even junking it out. Let the buyer worry about demolishing the property.
In other markets where more work is worthwhile, note that when you are in possession of a home through an estate, and want to pay money to get it sold, banks are usually pretty easy to get money from for those endeavors. A free and clear home is a lot of collateral, and they understand the money is needed as part of preparing a home for sale as part of closing out of an estate, these generally aren’t high risk loans for them. So even if this was the route you ended up going, you wouldn’t be paying out of pocket.
Call a real estate agency. Tell them you want to sell the property “as-is”. You might find ads in your area specializing in this service. Some time later they will give you a check.
Of course you could clean it out, clean it up, paint it, repair it, bring it up to code, etc., and maybe (probably) sell it for more money … but the easy way is all somebody else’s problem; you never even have to see the place, you just sign some papers and wait for your check.
I am not a lawyer but if there is a chance you are part owner (via the trust) I would be contacting a lawyer to get it straightened out and figure out what your responsibilities, financial or otherwise, before your brother passes.
I would dissolve (again I am not a lawyer) the trust by selling my part for a token amount to my brother and get out of this mess.
His community allows that eye sore?! You might try lodging a complaint with whatever municipal government has jurisdiction. I’m surprised his neighbors tolerate that. It’s downright unhealthy and unsafe.
Look into the trust. You may not even be mentioned in it & it may never be an issue for you.
This happened with my aunt & uncle, they left their home in a trust for one of their kids. The trustee was a lawyers group. When the kid died, the home was sold & the proceeds distributed to various charities.
Neither my cousins, siblings, nor I had to deal with all the trash that the kid had accumulated. It was a great relief to all of us.
I assume your mother set up something like a revocable living trust. If so, the trust paperwork should have been written in such a way that it designated who got the house when the original trust beneficiary (your mother) passed away.
If there is any way of getting a copy of that paperwork, I would definitely do it as soon as you can. It’s quite possible it was left to all the siblings jointly, or perhaps to all of them with a life estate to your brother, or something like that.
Is your sister still alive? My apologies if you stated that further down in the thread. But in any case it seems like it’ll be a fairly complex legal situation.
Depending on how the trust was written, it may be legitimate that there has been no title change - e.g. the life estate scenario. In any event, it’s quite possible that you are already a legal owner of part of the place, and could be on the hook should there be any problems especially those caused by the hoarding scenario.
Regarding that, I’m surprised the local jurisdiction has not reported the place as a nuisance of some sort. Even in the absence of a HOA, visible trash piling up would likely get the attention of the authorities at some point.
Bump, If you are asking about having an estate liquidator, it varies. Most take a percentage of the net of the sales they make. Some will quote a flat fee. It will be written in a contract.
If you are asking about a clean-out contractor, they usually give you a quote for the job. It will be a flat fee. Look their contract over very well. Some of them like hidden clauses. For example they may charge much more if they find more than three TV sets.
With either a liquidator or a contractor be sure to look into both their background & the contract. If they have been in business for a decade or two, they are most likely doing something right.
I personally have an attorney look over anything like this before I sign it. If this upsets them, I use someone else. For me this is a huge red flag.
Here’s another one with a presence in a few major cities, including L.A. Not sure if it’s the one you found or not, but …
My grandfather’s life ended in his hoarder house. I helped one of his sons – for about two weeks – try to deal with it. If you are absolutely sure that there’s nothing in that house of economic or sentimental value that you couldn’t happily walk away from to save the aggravation, then one of these firms might be the ticket.
I’m sorry. I wish you good luck. It really picks off the scab to have to go down this road.