Selling your childhood home after your parents have passed is an experience like no other.

My father passed away years ago. He was pretty young. It was hard for us all. He fought cancer for 8 years before succumbing to the terrible disease.

My mother continued to live in the house until she passed at the end of December 2023.

Unfortunately, they didn’t live close to us, so it was up to us to be able to get up there and handle clearing out paperwork, personal items, and the like.

There are SO many things to take care of, all while you are grieving your loss of your parent.

If your parent owned a house, condo, or other piece of property, you may need for the estate to go to Probate in the state where they lived, even if your parent had a will. My first step after finding the will was to find the attorney who had the original. Luckily that attorney is still in business and could handle the estate for us from a distance. There was still quite a bit *I* needed to do as the Executrix, and there actually wasn’t a whole lot I *could* do until a Probate Court Judge officially named me the Executor of the Estate. Once that happened, and we were able to get originals of the proclamation could I try to access funds, cancel accounts, etc.

Early on, an agent I spoke with said there was the possibility of selling the house “subject to probate,” but the lawyer we worked with said that due to what was stated in my mom’s will that we did not need the sale to go through Probate approval.

We successfully sold the house last summer. It was emotional, hard, frustrating, and sad. I was lucky to have found an amazing agent to work with while selling the home from a distance. Having a local real estate professional who you trust to help you hire the right people to get the house cleared out, painted, staged, etc was invaluable.

I have learned first-hand what a person may need to do in order to sell their childhood home. If you need help with a Baltimore, Towson or Timonium home, please contact me. I can help you through this tough experience.