Selling After a Living Trust
Welcome to Behind the Before & After | Buying and Selling - where I share, step-by-step, how I help all kinds of buyers and sellers reach their real estate goals. Whether you're downsizing, out-growing a home, or house hunting for the very first time, I know the challenges, and I know how to help you through them! Below, Selling After a Living Trust -
How We Met | A Living Trust
I met Sellers D&B several years ago, after the death of their father. He had been the owner of a multi-family property in South Medford. The sellers had reached out to me hoping to sell the property, but they described a fairly unique legal situation -
The Sellers’ father had passed away, but his girlfriend continued to live in the house, under a life estate. Just recently, the girlfriend had moved out of the house into a memory care facility. The sellers were under the impression that since their father’s house was now vacant, they would be able to sell the property - unfortunately that was not quite the case
The life estate for their father’s partner was still in place even though she was not occupying the property. In fact, her son was renting out the property and had signed long-term leases with new tenants for both units; the money was intended to go to maintaining his mother’s long-term care. Once this was established and explained, my clients set aside their plans to sell.
Photos, clockwise from upper left: a great South Medford neighborhood, the dining room - cleaned up and staged, the front porch, the living room.
The Challenge | Another Legal Twist
About 2 years went by, and my clients reached out to me again. Their father’s partner had passed away, the life estate was no longer in place, and they were now - legally - able to sell the house.
The challenge at this point was to try and get the tenants, who were paying rents well below market rate, to move. We learned that the leases the son had signed were illegal, and after several months of negotiating, and working with an attorney, my clients were able to vacate the property.
At this point, we moved quickly - and had the house cleaned and painted to make sure that it showed at its best. We had interior photography and neighborhood drone photos taken, virtual staging done and 3D tours created.
A lot of time and effort also went into researching and pricing the home; I called local agents to find out what pendings sales were selling for, and I visited open houses to look at other comparable sales in the neighborhood from a condition standpoint. The market value of the home had changed significantly since my first meeting with the sellers three years prior, but we priced the home carefully.
The Outcome | SOLD
We had a fantastic response to the marketing - over 50 parties came through on the open house weekend. We ultimately ended up with four offers by the following weekend and in the end, the sellers did very well.
While this legal situation was unusual, there are many instances in which it's extremely important to have an agent that is willing to work with all parties to unravel complicated deed and estate situations - or assemble a team that can do that work, when necessary.
Thanks for these kind words, from the family -
"Just a tremendous effort in patience, knowledge and result. Jen managed a 2 1/2 year wait to list the house, and promptly turned a frustrating experience into a quality outcome. She was decisive, communicative and provided great counsel throughout the process. True professional! Thanks, Jen!"
For this and all my online reviews, please see my Google Business page. For more case studies of how I help buyers and sellers, explore my whole series Behind the Before & After | Buying & Selling.
Comments