Once you’ve emptied the house …it is time to sell!
Complete basic home preparations to get top dollar
Give the house a deep clean inside and out, and then you need to decide whether or not to invest money into making any necessary repairs.
It might be beneficial to consult with a home inspector to see what (if any) items need to be addressed before listing the home.
If the kitchen and bathrooms haven’t been updated since the 1980s, you may want to spend a little money on sprucing those areas up — but only if your goal is to get top dollar!
Prepping to sell your parents’ house while you’re still mourning may leave you with little energy to do much more than cleaning the place and maybe repainting the walls.
We do have trusted partners for both cleaning and painting services if you’d like to farm out those items.
Or you can decide to sell “as is”
Selling as-is and getting a little less for the place isn’t necessarily bad, especially if selling at or under the fair market value helps you avoid a hefty capital gains tax.
Disclosure rules are more lenient for inherited properties — this is because you weren’t the primary resident, so you have no first-hand knowledge of any issues it may have.
On the other hand, if you do know that your parents’ home has major issues that will be expensive to fix, and you don’t disclose them, you may be liable to cover those repair costs. Your liability all depends on how you inherited the property and if you sold it as the outright owner, or as the personal representative of your parents’ estate.
Again, using a trusted partner could shed some light on the potential pitfalls with the home.
Disclose whether a death occurred in the house
Consult with a legal professional in your state if you’re unsure about your state’s disclosure requirements. Your real estate should be able to help with this too!
Conduct a pre-listing inspection
If you’re unsure of the condition of your parents’ house, you may want to get a pre-listing inspection done. Please note, this is a risk you may not want to take, as you’ll likely have to disclose any problems uncovered during the inspection.
If none of the heirs live close to the home, then it is imperative to hire a local real estate agent that you can trust to handle the long distance home sale.
Step 11 in the process is to set the list price, and sell the house!
