Selling Your Deceased Parents' Home

Kevin McCormally: I am Kevin McCormally of Kiplinger's and I am here Pat Esswein, the Housing Editor of Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine to talk about selling your parent's home. Pat, as the baby boomers get older it is more and more likely that the parents are going to die and they are going to be responsible for selling the family home. How is that any different from selling their house? Pat Esswein: Well for starters you are in grief, so this is a right of passage laden with all kinds of emotion and memories. And secondly your parents may have lived a very long time and they may have accumulated a whole lot of stuff, so it is going to be a big job. Kevin McCormally: Is there anybody to help people in this situation? Pat Esswein: Yes, there are actually real estate agents now who specialize in assisting adult children who are closing their parent's home. These people are called Senior's Real Estate Agents. And then there are also professional organizers, some of whom specialize in closing estates. Kevin McCormally: How do I find these people? Pat Esswein: Well, you can go to the websites of the National Associations that represent these people. In the case of agents, it is the National Association of Senior's Real Estate Agents and in the case of organizers, it is the National Association of Professional Organizers. Kevin McCormally: Okay, Pat, even before I put the house on the market, is there anything I ought to do when I go on to my folks house for the first time after their death? Pat Esswein: Yes even before the funeral, you probably ought to call their home insurer to make sure that their policy is up to date. It is possible that the home insurance company will ask you to change the name of the insured to the Estate. And secondly, you probably ought to have all the locks on the house changed because you do not really know who may have a key to the house. Kevin McCormally: Anything else about going through the house looking for valuables? Pat Esswein: Yes, you need to take a spin through the house and look in unexpected places for financial paperwork and valuables. Agents and organizers have told me that they have found stock certificates behind kitchen curtains, rubies in the underwear drawers, and the like. Kevin McCormally: Okay, thank you very much Pat.