Did you just inherit a home from a grandparent, a parent, or another member of your family?
Before you do anything else, you should go through the process of retitling the property and putting it into your name. This will give you the opportunity to make important decisions related to the home from now on.
From there, you should then decide what you’re going to do with the home. You have the option to move into the house, rent it out, or even sell it.
Selling an inherited house isn’t always easy, especially if the home has seen better days. But there are simple steps you can take to sell an inherited home in a hurry.
Here are five tips that will help you sell a home that you’ve inherited from a family member in no time.
1. Begin by Clearing Out the Home
Once you decide that selling an inherited house is what you want to do, the first step you’re going to need to take is clearing out the home. There is likely a lot of stuff crammed inside of it, which means this can take several weeks, if not several months, to do.
The average home contains more than 300,000 items inside of it. But there’s a chance that your loved one may have accumulated way more than that if they lived in their home for an extended period of time.
With this in mind, you should walk through the home you inherited and come up with a plan of action as far as how you’re going to clear it out. Are you going to:
- Bring in dumpsters and throw everything away yourself?
- Hire a company that offers estate cleanout services to help you get rid of everything?
- Attempt to separate things you want to throw out, things you want to keep, and things you want to try and sell?
You won’t be able to sell a home until you get it all cleared out. It’s why you should spring into action right away and formulate a plan of attack for clearing out an inherited home.
2. Find Out How Much the Home Is Worth
After you’ve taken the time to clear out your inherited home, the next order of business will be to take a step back and figure out how much the home is worth. There are a number of different ways that you can do this.
You can calculate your inherited home’s value by:
- Using online home valuation tools
- Hiring an appraiser
- Taking a look at how much similar homes in the area have sold for
You can technically do these things before clearing your inherited home out. But it’s a good idea to try and clear it out beforehand so that you have time to uncover any surprises that might affect the value of the home.
3. Think About Making Minor Improvements to the Home
At this point, you should have your inherited home all cleared out and you should know approximately how much it would be worth on the open market. You can try to sell it now if you want, but you can also try to bring the value of it up if you’re not satisfied with how much it’s worth.
If your goal is to sell your inherited home fast, it probably doesn’t make too much sense to start renovating and remodeling the whole house. Even a basic kitchen remodel is going to take too much time to finish.
But you might be able to make minor improvements—like replacing carpeting or painting walls—that can drive the value of your inherited home up. These improvements will make the home more attractive to buyers and encourage people to put in stronger offers.
4. Consider Selling the Home As-Is, Too
While you’re more than welcome to tackle home improvement projects to try and bring the value of your inherited house up, you should know that you don’t have to do it if you’re not up for the challenge. You also have the option of selling the house as-is.
There are companies that will pay you cash for your inherited home, no matter how outdated it might be or how much work needs to be done to it. They’ll give you a chance to sell your inherited house within just a few days in most cases with little-to-no effort on your part.
The only thing you’ll need to do is provide them with some very basic information about your home. They’ll usually make you an offer on the spot and take your home off your hands within a week.
5. Respond to Offers for the Home Quickly
Regardless of how you choose to go about selling your home, the key to selling it quickly is responding to offers you receive as soon as you can. Whether you sell your home through a realtor or sell it to a cash buyer, you should be prepared to respond to offers for your home the same day you get them.
The longer you own an inherited house, the longer you’re going to be responsible for paying taxes on it and paying to maintain it. Respond to the offers that you receive for it fast so that you can sell it and be done with it for good.
Selling an Inherited House Shouldn’t Take Long
Going through the process of selling an inherited house can turn into a nightmare for some people. Between clearing out the house and trying to make improvements to it so that it’s ready to sell, it can be a time-consuming ordeal.
Skip the stress by selling your home as-is to a cash buyer. We can make you a great offer for your inherited house and help you sell it as quickly as possible when you call on us for assistance.
Would you like to learn more about how easy it is to sell an inherited home to us? Contact us today and we’ll provide you with all the information you need to get rid of an inherited home that you don’t want.
