How to Clean Your Late Parent’s House?
May 16, 2018
Cleaning your late parents’ house has many strings attached to it. Some may be your great old memories while other will be about a love-hate relationship. Some decisions are financial, and some have legal requirements. There are plenty of things to sort out, and you already have your life challenges. Take help where necessary and sort it out logically and in an organized fashion. You may postpone some decisions, but some issues will need immediate action. You need to prioritize and focus on the most important and the most urgent ones first.
Clean up the legal issues
Legal issues about property documentation and ownership are critical. You need to focus on them first. All the necessary documents related to property should be in your custody. Besides, you should have copies and digitally scanned images of all the records. If you need some certification, endorsement or you want to replace the missing documents, do this quickly. It is the most important because it is all about your undoubted ownership of the house.
Tackle the Financial issues
After the legal documents, next important task is to clean up and sort out the financial reports of the property. Collect all financial records in one folder. The most important ones are titles to automobiles, bank statements, retirement fund statements, stock and bonds, insurance policies, tax returns, and mortgage documents. If the house is on a mortgage, then you need to change it to your name. Check for any missing payments, home equity loan, property tax, and other financial issues. Once you solve all these issues, you can focus on the building and its interiors.
Dealing with Emotions
This phase may or may not be an easy one. You have to decide about future of the house. Do you want to retain, sell or rent it out? If you have difficulty in taking a firm decision now, you can postpone it for some time. Maybe after some months, you can decide about it with a clear head. You can delay some decisions but not all. You should tackle legal and financial issues and maintenance problems as soon as possible. Keep your logical side moving in that direction while your emotional side might be busy in some old memories. Do not try to run away from emerging feelings. You need to acknowledge them and focus on your future.
Clean up the maintenance mess
The house may be in bad shape due to non-maintenance. As some systems may permanently fail due to carelessness, you need to fix up the mess as soon as possible. Call a home inspector to have a detailed report about all the systems and structure of the house. If you do not repair or replace a failing component on time, it may damage some other parts also. So do the maintenance quickly. A stitch in time saves nine.
Clean up other stuff
Your late parents’ house might have many things. You need to sort them out. You can throw out some ordinary items, but others might be so valuable that you want to protect them forever. Following tips can be useful in this regard.
What do you want to do with the house? Keep the purpose of the clean up in mind.
Do not do the physical labor yourself. If you need to move many things, take professional help and save your time and energy. You can also ask your friends and relatives for help.
Charity begins at home. You may sell many items for some hundred dollars but donating them to charity might be a better and soothing option. If not all, at least you can donate a portion of the remaining items.
Know the real value of each item. Before throwing away or selling a thing, you must know the real worth of it. While many things have sentimental value, there might be some collectibles, antiques or rare items in the list. Take help of an appraiser for other items to know their current fair market value. This knowledge would help you sell them better.
Get a wish list from your relatives and even friends of the departed soul. Some items may have deep sentimental value for someone while being useless for others. Photos, documents, awards, and gifts are irreplaceable. You should ask friends of your parents and family members for their wish list. Decisive power is still with you, but you should know what others want.
Keeping the secrets is essential. You may encounter some documents and proofs about your parent’s life. It is in your best interest to keep these secrets. You should abide by all the laws but other than this; you should not disclose any secrets. It is possible to destroy/protect these documents later on.
Contact Us
Habitat Developers is a premier real estate solutions company in Texas. We buy houses throughout the area to help homeowners like YOU. If you are looking to sell your inherited home, give us a call.
Our team will send you a 100% Fair, no-obligation quote. Upon acceptance, we will buy your house as-is within next 14 days. There are no realtor commissions or closing costs to pay. You do not have to make any repairs. In fact, you do not even have to clean the house. Our team will assist you with the cleaning process.