When there has been a death in the family and you need to sell their house, grief can be quite overwhelming and hard to focus on anything else. On top the grief a family may be dealing with, if the house has been in the family for a long time, it has most likely fallen in disrepair, needing quite a bit of upkeep, updating, and renovating to ready the house for a traditional sale. The sooner one can jump into the process of selling the home, the better. However, when there is emotional attachments to the home and siblings that are dealing with selling the house, things can get complicated. Read on to find 6 important steps that should be taking if you are trying to sell your San Diego house d ue to a death in the family.
Step 1: Is There a Will?
The first step to dive into, is finding out if the owners of the property have a will. Acccording to Legal Zoom,
“Only 33% of U.S. adults have created estate planning documents.” That is a staggering statistic! A will can help guide siblings and help them make decisions on what to do with the home of a deceased loved one. If there is a will, the heir must see if there is information about the home listed and the home may be required to go through the probate process.
Step 2: Change the Locks and Fix It Up
Next, changing the locks is extremely important. If someone believes they are the heir or should be the heir and moves into the property, it will be very hard to get them out, only further complicating matters. Fixing up the property is the next order of business and this is where time, energy, and money come into play. Not all heirs have the luxury of fixing up an outdated home and investing money into the property. Especially if the property has been sitting in need of repair for many years, this is a HUGE task. Revive.com explains that, “With millennial buyers entering the market, turnkey homes are becoming increasingly more popular. ” Not only is fixing up the property extremely important if you wish to list the home on the San Diego MLS, but cleaning the home of years of clutter. Just emptying the home of belongings of a deceased loved one can be a huge undertaking, not to mention a very emotional one. If you have siblings and heirs that live in different parts of the country, this responsibility becomes complicated.
Step 3: Contact the Heirs
The next important step when selling a home when there has been a death in the family is contacting the heirs. It is imperative that the executor of the will or personal representative is appointed to help lead the sale of the home and keep all other family members in the loop. As mentioned above, one of the hardest jobs that an executor has is dealing with the emotional attachment that siblings may have to their loved ones home. This is where tensions can run high and stress can grow.
Step 4: Value the Property
Step 4 is to hire a professional to value the property and hire someone that is not emotionally invested in the property like a friend or family member. It is important for a real estate professional to run comparables to see what other homes in the area and in the same condition are currently selling for. It is also a good idea to hire a professional appraiser. This way, the family and heirs to the property have a realistic understanding of what their loved ones home is worth in the condition that it currently is in.
Step 5: Prepare the Home for Showings
Next, and this one is a doozy, is preparing the home for showings. As we noted above, preparing the home is going to take considerable energy, time, and funds involved. But when you must vacate the home for showing, have it in pristine condition for weeks and even months at a time, and to coordinate the showings can be a full time job in itself. Also, it is a good idea to have the home professionally staged. Depending on the size of the home, you could have a bill upwards of $5,000.
Step 6: Understanding the Taxes
It is important to understand the taxes and the complications of taxes involved int he house. There may be a wide range of inheritance, estate, and income taxes involved. Estatelawpartners.com helps us understand that, “It is usually best to sell an inherited property, as soon as the rights to it are received. When a property is inherited at death, the property value is “stepped up” to fair market value at the time of the owner’s death. That means that you can sell a property that was purchased in 1970 but not pay taxes on the value gained over those years.”
Trusted House Buyers
If you are dealing with the emotional toll of losing a loved one, at Trusted House Buyers, we understand what a sensitive and life changing time you are in. When trying to sell your San Diego loved ones home there are many steps you must consider and the steps can be daunting and stress inducing. When the heirs of the property are now put in charge of ridding the home of all of the belongings, repairing, renovating, showing, and selling the home, it can be quite the disruption to their lives and may not be realistic. At Trusted House Buyers, we can give you a solid cash offer for your loved ones home in the condition that it is in now. We take the home as-is, disrepair and all. You can even leave all belongings in the home that you do not wish to keep. We can usually close with 10 days and help your family, the siblings involved, the executor of the will move on with their life with their loved ones home behind them. Hopefully, the sale of the home will provide cash that the family now has to do what they wish with. As a family run business here in San Diego, we treat each situation with compassion and care. Give us a call today at 619-786-0973 to learn how we can help you sell your San Diego house after a loved one has passed.
