House In Order?

Getting your house is order can mean two different things.  Lately I have found myself in selling situations where I’m selling a home that belonged to a parent who recently passed away or moved into assisted living.  I’ve also seen parents moving into their child’s home as they get older.  Getting your house in order can come from a legal perspective, for example preparing for what happens when you pass away or move into an assisted living.  For this, I suggest you consult with an attorney who specializes in estate planning and probate.  But it can also mean getting your physical house in order. 

Is your house in order? More specifically, is your physical house in order?

How has your home been maintained? Have all of the needed repairs been made? Has there been deferred maintenance that needs attention? The question I hear the most is, “what do I need to do to get my house ready to sell?”  In certain markets you can get away with doing less, but in competitive markets, you must do more. Currently we are in a low inventory housing market, so logic tells you you can do less. Not so fast. In the higher price ranges, you still need to over prepare and, if done well, you will get rewarded with multiple offers and you can control many of the terms in you favor. When people ask me what they need to do to prepare for sale, the sellers usually already know, they just need me to confirm what they are thinking.

If you have lived in your house for 20 years, you have accumulated a lot of stuff through the different seasons of your life.  You have the dining room set your parents gave you because you needed something to fill the room.  You have three sets of china in your basement because your parents got them from their parents.  You have those bulky toddler toys that were gifts in the crawlspace.  You have the wooden swing set, the basketball hoop, the broken landscape lighting you just can’t throw away.  Then you have the boxes of canceled checks, receipts and Christmas decorations that haven’t seen the light of day for years.  My personal favorite is the old electronics that have long since become obsolete.

Now is the time to start getting your house in order.

Don’t wait until it’s too burdensome to try to figure out what to do with it all.  Don’t wait to burden the kids with figuring out what to do with it.  I’m always working with seniors who are so overwhelmed with the process that it becomes unhealthy.  Seniors feel the pressure of what to do with stuff on top of a life change such as moving into a nursing home or sizing down that they fall ill, depressed and get stuck. Families who are left to clean out mom and dad’s house grow irritable with each other, this after a period of mourning or anxiety of putting them into a nursing home. None are healthy so please start now.

Get Your House in Order

Start assigning what to do with your stuff now. Start purging. Make it clear to relatives, kids and siblings what to do with your stuff. Have a plan and now is the time to make those decisions. Many sentimental items take some time to go through so start now.  I have resources for how to get rid of all of the “stuff”.  All you have to do is ask.

Everyone will be much healthier for it.