Ah yes ~ the Estate Sale!
I have sold the American dream for years.
It’s such a thrill to help a young couple into their first home, the
successful "move up" buyer with equity from the purchase of their
first home, to the grandparents relocating to be closer to their grand kids,
and everything in between.
I am currently representing a seller with the sale of his parent’s
home.
The Estate Sale
The estate sale is quite common in real estate not unlike the sale
of a home from a divorce.
A home going to market becomes nothing more than a home on the
market. The value is the value and an estate sale certainly doesn’t change
anything.
What does change is the seller for an estate sale.
I have worked with attorneys who might be handling the sale for
the estate, but more often than not, I will usually work with the children
(adult typically) of the estate.
Sometimes the children might have lived in the home at some point
in their life. Maybe growing up in the home with fond memories, or just a
special place they may have enjoyed family gathering’s or holidays. It can sometimes get emotional, but that is
not the point of this story.
The young man and the estate I am currently representing is in a
lose / lose situation with trying to make any decisions about the sale of his
mother’s home.
Why? ~ His siblings.
I have had this challenge before and I’ve witnessed some of the
most childish, foolish, greedy, mean and most unloving acts I could have ever
imagined.
How do brothers and sisters get to this point? And what would the parents think of this
behavior?
This young man has done everything I’ve suggested in preparing his
mother’s home for sale only to be shot down, and halted by his sister’s
attorney. Yep, they come lawyer’d up sometimes.
In this case, there are also two other brother’s who are just making the youngest siblings (my client) life a living hell right now.
In this case, there are also two other brother’s who are just making the youngest siblings (my client) life a living hell right now.
We sold our family home that I grew up in back in 2011. There were
11 of us.
The other 10 turned to me and said “Kevin you sell real estate,
get it done.”
I became the seller.
I became the seller.
 |
| the home I grew up in |
I communicated to the family with group emails every step of the
way and a few family members were greedy in a subtle kind of way, but for the
most part the sale went smooth and actually brought a lot of us who had been
out of touch closer together.
More importantly was that my parents would have been very proud
watching their children working together.
This young man I'm currently representing actually called me from the emergency room of a
hospital because of chest pains.
I have never gotten emotional regarding helping buyers and sellers
with their real estate needs and I don’t plan to start now. What has changed in
me is, realizing I have had too many estate sales where this is the case, families
feuding, sales ending up in lawsuits, families ripping away at the very fabric
of their heritage.
Just stop it! ~ Stop it right now!
Maybe you and your siblings have grown apart, went different
directions or whatever your story is. You don’t even have to be friends. I’m
just the realtor here.
But for your parents sake,
Hire a competent real estate professional, do what they suggest
and make your parents proud.
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