Considerations When Selling a House After the Death of a Parent

Life seems to get exponentially harder when a parent dies, whether you’ve had enough time to prepare for it or not. In addition to your own responsibilities at work and home, you can quite suddenly be thrown into organizing medical records, contacting creditors, finding new homes for pets, and planning a funeral—all while also trying to take time to grieve. It can feel overwhelming. 

Selling a house after the death of a parent, especially when the home is in Oceanside—but you live in Ventura—only adds more pressure to an already painful situation. And, the stress of deciding how to go about selling their home, whether you live close by or not, doesn’t stop there. Other issues sometimes crop up that can complicate the sale and prevent you from moving on.

So, to help you feel better prepared during this difficult time, we look at some of the most common concerns you could face when you have to sell your parent’s home. We also offer a potentially less painful way to handle them. 

Take Stock of Your New Responsibilities 

Inheriting the home owned by a parent who’s passed obliges you to more responsibilities than most people realize—especially when you decide to sell it. Though this option can initially seem like an easy route to wrapping up their affairs, you quickly learn that there are few things harder than navigating a real estate transaction for the home of a departed loved one. It’s not just that the ‘to-do’ list is long. It’s that your emotional connection to the outcome is often considerable.

Preparing for the Sale Takes Time

Even when the tasks you take on are fairly run-of-the-mill when it comes to selling a home, the process can still feel like a burden. For example, you’ll likely have to declutter, clean, and make repairs in order to attract potential buyers. That may only involve putting away a few loose items, like the dishes and dog bed, or adding a fresh coat of paint and a new screen door. 

Even with homes that could make magazine covers, there is always work to do to get a home sold.

And, the job of selling your parent’s house is simply so much harder—and takes much longer if you:

• Work full-time and don’t have hours in your day for regular showings

• Are raising children and have to consider their schedules as well as your own

• Live out of town or out of state and can’t find days on end to get away and take care of the time-intensive process

Plus, more often than not, selling a house after the death of a parent requires extensive home repairs, not just a few minor updates—especially when regular maintenance was neglected due to circumstances like hoarding or a prolonged illness. 

Preparing for the Sale Takes Money

Not every issue is immediately obvious. You may not know, for example, that there is a problem with mold until you pay for an inspection. Boundary disputes, unpaid property taxes, and medical liens aren’t always evident, either, until you attempt to transfer the title. 

Dealing with just one of these problems will cost you not only time, but your hard-earned money—and, possibly, a bit of heartache, too.

If you have to deal with several problems, all that’s involved can feel overwhelming. 

And, unfortunately, the work—and your potential expenses—won’t end once these issues are settled. You have to consider:

• Cleaning a mess, carting off the clutter, terminating pests, and ridding the house of mold

• Managing repair and replacement costs such as replacing the roof, cracks, or leaks

• Staging the home, and hosting open houses several times a day or a week

• Negotiating prices with buyers or paying an agent to help you

• Affording hefty 6% agent commissions

• Changing the title

These responsibilities mark only the beginning of the process of selling a house, but there can be hope in the midst of the trial.

How to Easily Sell a House After the Death of a Parent 

Thankfully, you do have another option for selling the house that won’t take anything out of your pocket or steal away your time. When inheriting your parent’s home, you may want to get a cash offer.

By selling directly to an all-cash buyer, it’s possible to receive a higher net offer than if you invested the time and money to handle the sale yourself or hired an agent to help. 

A reputable cash buyer will:

• Take the house as-is and take care of the time- and cost-intensive details for you

• Pay a fair price, and ensure you don’t have to pay any unnecessary fees

• Complete the sale of the home in only seven days

• Close at your convenience

The right cash buyer will help make the transition as easy as possible for you so that you can do what is necessary to move on with your life. Even if a cash sale isn’t your best option, a reputable buyer will let you know and advise you on the next steps.

Homebuyers You Can Trust to Handle Your Parent’s House

At Sell Your House Direct, our goal is to provide the simplest of solutions for all home sellers struggling with difficult decisions. And, we aim to do it within a timeline that works best for you. 

As local California homebuying specialists who have years of experience buying, selling, and remodeling houses, we can take care of your parent’s home and you by:

• Putting cash in your pocket in as few as seven days—at zero cost to you

• Taking care of your closing costs and eliminating all commissions

• Managing the cleanup and removal of clutter

• Paying for repairs and managing the title