property unrealistically, though, in an effort to recover the expenses incurred by trying to make the home salable—ironically making its sale difficult, if not impossible. The sale of a property like this can be difficult because it must be priced more expensively to compensate for the higher cost of sale preparations, only for the price to become a barrier to potential buyers, causing the property to take longer to sell. 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 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 are not 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 which are dependent on the contents of the house and the size of items to be hauled away. If there are many items to be carried away, the price may become 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 the price the property should be sold for. Also, multiple heirs will have differing opinions on the inspection of the house and the type
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