What Do I Do With My Parent’s House?

Suppose you have been named as trustee of your parents’ trust, or as personal representative (executor) of your last surviving parent’s estate. You wonder: What do I do with my parent’s house? Do you sell it immediately, as is? Or can you sell it to one of your siblings? Can you buy it from the trust or estate? One pervasive problem: how much work needs to be done on my parent’s house before it can be sold? Should you get it completely cleaned, paint most of the rooms, replace the carpet? How about updating their 50’s kitchen? Dealing with your parent’s house is one of the most difficult problems for most children who become trustee or personal representative. In this week’s podcast episode, we have some thoughts about how much work you should do to prepare the house. Spoiler alert: not much.