For most families, the contents — not the house — are the reason nothing has happened for eight months.
People expect the paperwork. What blindsides them is the house itself: a lifetime of belongings, most of it worth nothing to anyone, all of it attached to a memory. Sorting it is physically exhausting and emotionally brutal, and it usually falls on whichever family member lives closest.
So it doesn't get done. The house sits. The bills keep arriving. And the sale that everyone agreed on in principle never starts, because step one is "clear out Mom's house" and nobody can face step one.
Our answer is simple: don't. Walk through, take what matters — photographs, documents, jewelry, the few pieces of furniture someone actually wants — and leave everything else exactly where it is. We take the property with the contents in it and deal with them after closing. There's no cleanout fee, and we don't reduce the offer because the house is full.
As-is means we're not asking you to fix or clear anything, and we're not coming back after an inspection to renegotiate. Specifically, none of these are your problem:
Two practical cautions. First, look before you leave it. Original deeds, savings bonds, insurance policies, military records, and family photographs turn up in dresser drawers and shoeboxes far more often than people expect — take a walk through and pull anything irreplaceable before closing. Second, if the estate is in probate or a trust, check with the attorney before disposing of or distributing contents, since personal property may be part of the estate and subject to its own rules.
Being straightforward about the short list: we ask that you not remove fixtures or systems from the house after we agree on a price (appliances that were there at the walkthrough, HVAC equipment, water heaters, built-ins), that you tell us about known material problems rather than let us discover them, and that anyone with a legal interest in the property is actually in the loop. That's it.
That's normal, and it's not a problem. Tell us where the property is and what shape it's in — we'll take it from there.
Tell Us About the Property