It’s an emotional yet common event that many families unfortunately face. A loved one passes away, someone inherits the property and suddenly there is a home to be sold…sometimes quickly. The new owner may even reside thousands of miles away, and soon realizes that while the house or condo is valuable, estate checks must be written to cover taxes, insurance, assessments, water, heating, electricity and more.
While these types of sales can be emotional for the seller, agents trained in handling these types of listings with care and sensitivity can be an invaluable resource to the client while adding a meaningful listing niche to your business.
Gerard Splendore, a real estate broker at New York City’s Coldwell Banker Warburg, explains how he goes about doing such.
“I’ve established relationships with estate attorneys, probate attorneys, family and friends who have aging parents,” he says. “I have a local funeral home send me obituaries and have followed up with the deceased’s families after a few months. I do occasionally read the obituaries and research addresses.”
To outsiders, it may sound a tad morbid, but it’s actually a win-win for agents and the inheritors who want the home sold. Some agents told RISMedia that while they do get involved with these types of situations, they do not actively target them.
“I don’t purposefully seek out probate deals or solicit funeral homes or attorneys, but I do a fair number of these home sales,” says Jeffrey Decatur, with REMAX Capital in upstate New York. “The reason is because of experience and being able to handle a delicate situation. The thing to remember is there are a lot of moving parts. Legal, logistics, family and emotional aspects are all heightened.
“Legally, there is a lot more work to be double-checked and secured before you can market a property. Often people are overwhelmed and mistakenly think they have the proper paperwork or authorization. You have to have even more patience, understanding and handholding. There is nothing worse than having to ask someone for a death certificate. Say you understand and have been through it before.”
Decatur advises providing inheritors examples of what you have done with other bereaved clients.
“Handhold and be understanding,” he says. “I find it helpful to tell them how the last time I worked with a woman after her husband passed and the attorneys required a death certificate, power of attorney and letters of testamentary. By explaining it this way, you are not the cause of the pain. It is the process, and you are just there to help.”
Pam Rosser Thistle, an agent with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Fox & Roach, Realtors® in Philadelphia, notes that it is mostly estate attorneys who hire the agent to sell a home. If she is involved, there’s more to it than the usual listing and selling agenda.
“Often the grown children who are the heirs may not live nearby,” she says. “In these situations, I do all that I can if I’m the agent, including helping to organize and find outlets for what is in the house, which can be an enormous, emotional task for them. Often, a family lived in the house for decades. The heir(s) needs an outside party like a real estate agent to provide resources, emotional support and some distance when situations arise, which they often do amongst family members.
“I do not pursue estates, but my network knows that I will handle this type of sale with respect, and that I will share the resources that are needed. In my family, I have helped handle these situations, and as a widow I have personal experience. I remember the cloudy feeling of grieving and having to face financial realities with a deadline.”
Joe Facenda is an associate with REMAX Gateway in Fairfax, Virginia. His way of trying to obtain a listing for a home where the owner has died is to reach out to the personal representative of the estate once probate has been filed. “My feeling is that while the family is likely still grieving, they have now started to deal with the business portion of things,” he says. “I determine if there is real estate in the estate and also if there is a surviving spouse.
“I find that surviving spouses need a significant amount of time to decide the next step regarding housing, and I want to give them that time. But heirs dealing with a vacant house need to make decisions sooner rather than later. Will a family member move into the home? Will they keep it as a rental? Will they sell it? And if they sell it, will it be to a private investor or put on the market?”
After the initial contact, Facenda follows up with a phone call, with varying degrees of success.
“They may have a family friend who is an agent or already signed a listing agreement,” he says. “Some have found the mailing offensive. This is a very difficult and confusing time for families emotionally, legally and even physically as they try to empty the home. Sometimes there is anger and suspicion. I try to be as gentle, calm and respectful as possible. If someone is set or does not want to be bothered, I absolutely will never contact them a second time.”
Once Facenda wins a listing, there is much to be done, with first things first.
“Get a title search done right away,” he advises. “I have one performed on all estates I put on the market. Even if the home will be kept for a family member or as a rental, I urge getting one done sooner rather than later. The heirs think they know the mortgage situation. They think there are not any liens or judgments against the home, but occasionally there are surprises in courthouse records. Whether it is within a year of someone passing or decades down the road, every house will be sold, and if there are issues in the courthouse records, the sooner they are found the easier to remedy.
“Most of the time the issues are easily solvable, like unreleased trusts or small judgments that may or may not have been paid. But sometimes they could stop a sale from closing. The worst scenario possible is to go on the market, get a contract and then find out you can’t close.”
Decatur cautions that there is a line that should not be crossed when it comes to seeking listings from heirs.
“I have known agents to call the relatives and go to funerals,” he says. “Recently, there was a very prominent agent who passed away. They were known nationally, and when they passed, some idiot sent the spouse a letter stating they are an agent who specializes in difficult times like these.
“I don’t even know if they’d gotten through the burial yet when the letter arrived. The agent apparently sent letters after reading obituaries. It was distasteful, hurtful and showed their lack of knowledge of the industry, ironically sending it to the surviving spouse of an agent whose professionalism they could never match.”
