To understand the special issues that arise when selling real estate related to the disposition of an estate or through a probate, we two interviewed an award-winning Certified TopAgents who specialize in this area.
Dan Farris, Brown Harris Stevens: Dan has been selling Manhattan real estate for nearly 20 years. He has successfully worked with many estates and probates, selling properties, providing broker opinions, and managing the staging process.
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Joanne Douglas, The Corcoran Group: Joanne and her team annually close between $15-30 million in estate/probate sales alone. She is an annual member of Corcoran’s President’s Circle (Top 25 agent in the firm) and has been selling Manhattan real estate for 25 years.
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What makes selling an estate different than selling a non-estate apartment?
Joanne Douglas: There’s nobody living in the home…and unfortunately you can feel that when you come in. But you don’t want it to feel that way. Usually, in an estate/probate situation, the apartment is dated or very cluttered. It’s very important to convince the trustee or heir to hire a professional cleaning crew. Sometimes it’s even worth white-washing the apartment. If possible, we prefer to keep the furniture because the apartment will photograph better, but if we have to, we’ll hire a haul-away crew to remove any shabby furniture. In certain instances, we’ll bring in a professional stager who will bring in accessories to warm up the apartment. It may cost a couple thousand dollars to do that, but it makes a huge difference in the sale.
Dan Farris: In terms of the presentation, it is important to make the home look as inviting as possible. If there are things such as leaks or signs of leakage, fix them and paint them so they look good cosmetically. When you’re dealing with an estate/probate, you need to remove the clutter so the apartment is appealing. If it smells, you should rip up the carpet. Some apartments only need a touch up, but others may need to an entire paint job and re-flooring. If there are any signs of death or medical care, for example a shower or toilet seat that provides assistance, remove them. You want the home to be appealing to people moving in.
