Three Condos and a House

Did I Mess Up?

Some of my last listings have been similar but different situations. The three condos and the house have become a familiar situation.  I’m helping families sell their parent’s homes. One condo was a 93-year-old going into assisted living, one condo both parents were moving into a nursing facility, another condo, a mom was moving into independent living.  The last home was a parent who had passed away.

Each had their own unique situations and different needs. Many times, the kids are looking to me for some guidance through the whole process.  Not just selling the house but, how to get rid of the stuff, how involved the parents should be, handling the non-local kid’s opinions, how much updating should be done, who will clean the house, and the many other difficult decisions that can mix the needs of a sale with the emotions of the big changes in everybody’s lives.

My challenge is to read how much each can tolerate.  Do they just want to sell as is? Do they need me to handle everything? Do they not want to spend any money preparing the house or condo?

Each one had their own ideas and degrees of willingness and money to do things. I tend to lean on the general idea of selling the home as is and I handle everything.  Of the four sales I mentioned above, in today’s current market, my old methods and advice didn’t work, or at least not completely.

Did I Mess Up?

In the first situation the seller was very fragile.  When we met, the whole family and siblings were there and I was very timid about telling them that the condo needed carpet, paint and new lighting.   Since we still had a shortage of ranch condos, buyers might look past it.  The biggest elephant in the room though, was the love of her life, her dog, who had health issues, and she had lost her sense of smell.  The kids thought cleaning the carpet would be enough but it sat for 60 days since we could never get rid of the smell.  Finally, with new carpet and sealed floors, it sold quickly thereafter.

In the next situation, the kids said handle it all and sell as is. The home needed lots of legwork from getting rid of furniture to cleaning, painting and recarpeting. I arranged for an auction company to come and sell most of stuff and then we still needed two dumpsters to get rid of the rest. The home was cleaned, but even after a price reduction, it did not sell. It sat for 30 days and the family wanted it sold.  We then had the house repainted and recarpeted, raised the price and it sold right after. In the condo market, buyers want everything turnkey.  They do not want to recarpet and paint, even if discounted accordingly.

In the other two sales situations, the families did not want to sell as is, they wanted to fix, update and repair everything prior to a sale.  I advised them to sell as is and not to worry about anything, and that buyer’s expectations in an estate sale are much lower than a “market ready” house.  Both sellers just couldn’t do it that way and one spent the summer doing all the repairs and updates, while the other just updated and did a great job staging.  Both sold quickly with multiple offers and above list price sales.

I am highlighting these stories for two reasons.  One, to let you know that I’m very familiar with these situations if you have the need to sell your parent’s home, and two, to show that I will provide you with options depending on your specific needs.  We can discuss whether it’s beneficial to do updates and repairs based on your specific scenario, needs and expectations. 

My advice when selling a parent’s house was typically to sell as is, but with the changing market, putting some resources and updates, in most cases, as above, will get you back more than what you put in.