Often, yes. If the house has an old ceiling stain, a basement that gets damp in spring, or one bad room, we can usually still run the sale and just keep buyers out of the damaged part. Live mold and standing water are the exceptions. Those get fixed first by a professional remediation company, and
A storage unit doesn’t close itself when the renter dies. The lease stays open, the rent keeps coming due, and whatever is inside becomes part of the estate. If nobody pays, the facility can eventually sell the contents under state lien law. Maryland, Virginia, and DC each set different deadlines, so the first job is
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Yes, outdoor items sell at estate sales. A nice patio set, a working grill, or a good stone planter is often gone early, and the rest depends on condition, how hard it is to haul, and what time of year the sale lands. A lot of Chevy Chase and Bethesda homes come with a back
Some of it, yes. Once nobody needs them, walkers, canes, shower chairs, manual wheelchairs, and lift chairs are basically household items, and we price them like anything else in the house. The rest isn’t yours to sell. Rentals go back to the supplier, oxygen gear often still belongs to them too, and prescription devices like
Most of a loved one’s clothing gets donated, a few pieces are kept, and a small handful of designer bags, good coats, and furs might be worth selling. You don’t have to decide all of it at once, and unless the house has a deadline, there’s no rush. The closet is often the hardest part
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Liquidate the contents before any contractor shows up. A renovation crew can’t work around a full house, a teardown can’t start until it’s empty, and an estate sale only works while the rooms are still furnished. So the sale goes first on the project calendar. In Bethesda and Chevy Chase, where plenty of older homes
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When someone dies, their car becomes part of the estate, and only a person with legal authority can sign the title over to a buyer. So before you can sell a deceased person’s car, you need to know who that person is and which papers prove it. Maryland, Virginia, and DC each handle this their
Yes. While your parent is alive, you can usually hold an estate sale under a power of attorney, as long as the document covers their personal property. Maryland’s statutory form calls that “tangible personal property.” There are limits. The authority ends when your parent dies, and it doesn’t let you hand belongings out to family
A home library usually gets split three ways before an estate sale: books worth a closer look, books that sell as general stock, and books that get donated or recycled. We sort first and price second, so a signed first edition doesn’t end up in the dollar box. If you’re staring at floor-to-ceiling shelves and
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Start with the papers, then the equipment, then the furniture. In a home office, tossing the wrong folder can actually cost the estate money, since those files show which accounts, bills, and tax returns still need dealing with. The rest of the room is just normal household contents. Once the paperwork is boxed up, the
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