Sometimes, even decently kept houses are crowded with a lifetime of belongings. In such cases, the heir to the house will have to make repairs, clean out the late person’s belongings, make necessary updates, and stage the home to market it. Clearing and cleaning out houses usually involves many stages and processes. The number-one thing to do is for the family to remove any relevant or essential heirlooms, papers, documents, and expensive items. This process may take days—or even longer, if the heirs are separated by distance from the home, from one another, or both. After this, an auction service or a consignment shop can be contacted for the sale of valuable items at fees that average around 25% to 30% of the sale price. The other items that aren’t sold can be given away or donated to charity organizations. This might be a tedious task because the heir to the house could be living far from the property’s location, making it difficult to locate a charity establishment in that vicinity with any real certainty of its quality. Items of no importance or of minimal value that are left in the house can be hauled out by a cleaning company at prices dependent on the contents of the house and the size of the items to be hauled away. If there are many items to be carried away, the price might become a cause for concern. Heirs who live outside the area will have to rely heavily on the help of real estate agents for regular supervision of ongoing activities in their absence. It can get complicated when there are two or more siblings who inherit a home, because each will likely have a different opinion on what the property is worth and how it should be priced. Further, multiple heirs will have differing opinions on the inspection of the house and the type of attorney needed, because each sibling will have different values—both financial and
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