What to do with a parent's house after they pass

The first two weeks matter more than people expect, and almost none of the important steps involve the belongings.

Week one: secure and protect

Lock the house and change nothing else. Do not start hauling things out, and do not let a relative “take a few things to remember him by” until someone has an inventory. This is where most family fights begin.

Call the insurance carrier. A standard homeowners policy can lapse or limit coverage when a house sits vacant, often after 30 or 60 days. Tell the carrier the owner died and ask for vacant property coverage. A fire in an uninsured empty house is the worst outcome available, and it happens.

Keep the utilities on. In a Georgia summer, cutting the power means a house full of mold within weeks. Power, water, and pest control stay on until closing.

Get certified copies of the death certificate. Order eight to ten. Every bank, insurer, and the court will want an original, and reordering takes time.

Week two: find the paperwork

Look for the will first. In Georgia it is often at the lawyer’s office, in a safe deposit box, or filed with the probate court of the county where the person lived. Also gather:

• Deed to the house, and any mortgage or home equity statements
• Property tax bills, which tell you whether homestead or senior exemptions were in place
• Life insurance policies, bank and brokerage statements
• Recent medical and nursing home bills, which are often the largest claims against an estate

Opening probate in Georgia

If there is a will, the named executor petitions the probate court in the county where the deceased lived. If there is no will, an heir petitions to be appointed administrator. Either way, the court issues letters, and those letters are what a closing attorney will ask to see before the house can be sold.

Two Georgia specifics are worth knowing. First, real property here technically vests in the heirs or beneficiaries at the moment of death, subject to administration, which is why the executor’s authority to sell has to be established on paper. Second, if the will grants the executor full powers, no separate court order is needed for the sale. Without that language, the executor petitions the court for permission, which adds weeks.

Talk to a Georgia probate attorney before you list or sign anything. This page is a map, not legal advice.

Deciding about the contents

While probate runs, you can work on the belongings. There are only four real paths, and picking the wrong one is what costs families money:

1. An estate sale, if there is enough resale value to clear a company’s minimum
2. An auction or appraiser, if the value sits in a few pieces rather than the whole house
3. A cleanout, if the contents are ordinary, which is the honest answer for most houses
4. Leave it, if the plan is to sell the house as-is to a buyer who takes it with the contents inside

Have two or three companies walk it and tell you which category you are in. Reputable operators will turn down a sale that is not worth running, and that no is useful information.

Then the house

Once you know what the contents are worth, the house decision gets simpler. A house in good condition with a local family member to manage it usually nets more on the open market. A house that needs work, has out-of-state heirs, or sits under a deadline often nets more sold as-is, because the repairs, the carrying costs, and the months add up faster than people estimate.

Whatever you choose, do the math on carrying costs first. Taxes, insurance, utilities, and yard work on an empty Metro Atlanta house run real money every month it sits.