issues and concerns. This may require an inspector who will recommend repairs for both present and potential threats before selling the house. Hiring an inspector can, like everything else, be time- and resource-intensive, especially for heirs who live far from the inherited home. We are delighted to recommend inspection companies who can complete an inspection in just a few days as well as local reliable contractors who can service the home. Once the necessary repairs and updates are made on the inherited home, you may calculate the total expenses and find an inordinate amount of money has been invested. This will have some effect on trying to sell the house. The seller needs to calculate all these expenses and compare it to the equity that is in the home. A good realtor can help you here. Then you can arrive at what you want to do to the house before you put it on the market. Resist the desire to hike the price of the property unrealistically, in an effort to recover the expenses incurred by trying to make the home salable. Statistics show this makes its sale difficult, if not impossible. The longer the home stays on the market the more expense the heirs incur. It is imperative to get the price of the home in the "sweet spot" taking into account the comparables for similar homes. Again, this is where a good realtor is invaluable. 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. We already addressed the process of cleaning out the home. 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. Then go through the step-by-step process outlined in Chapter 3.
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