Cleaning Out the House After a Death
For some, after a loved one dies, it's too heart-breaking to go through the house and sort out the belongings left behind. For others, it's too much work. Especially if the seller had lived in the home for a long time.
Last summer, I represented an elderly seller whose wife had died. His sister and her husband from North Dakota were helping him pack up the house so the seller could move back to the Midwest with them. They didn't know whom to call to sell the house, so they asked the next-door neighbor, who recommended me. The seller was hard of hearing, and it was difficult for him to move around the house without a walker. This meant it was mostly up to his sister to get the house ready for sale and move him out.
I started to help them, giving them pointers on what to pack, ordering a large dumpster for the front yard, but when they led me to the pile of dead rats in the master bedroom, I decided some things were better left to the home owner and his family to resolve. Yes, I am a wimp when it comes to dead rodents. . . . read more about Cleaning Out the House After a Death.
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Comments
I knew I was going to be faced with cleaning out my mothers home very soon because of her failing health and I very easily talked her into lets start cleaning out some closets etc and that made a big difference when the time came to go through the house after her death. You would be surprise at how much we got rid of. I have encouraged several of my friends to start doing the same thing with their parents and it works.