FAMILY HOME OPTIONS
What should we do with Mom & Dad's house?
When a home has been in the family for decades, deciding what happens next isn't always simple.
HOP Real Estate helps longtime homeowners and their families understand their options—from selling completely as-is, to making a few strategic improvements, to preparing the home for a traditional sale.
Before you clean it out, remodel it, or accept an offer, let's look at the options together.
YOU DON'T HAVE TO FIGURE THIS OUT ALONE
A home that's been in the family for 40 years can come with 40 years of decisions.
Maybe Mom or Dad is ready to move. Maybe the house hasn't been updated in years. There may be a basement, garage and closets full of belongings. The kids may live across town—or across the country.
You don't need to know what to do with all of it before you call me.
I'll meet with you, look at the home, learn what's important to your family, and help you understand the realistic options before you start spending money or making commitments.
SELL AS-IS
The easiest path may be selling the home exactly as it sits—even if it needs repairs, hasn't been updated, or still has belongings inside.
I'll help you understand what the home is worth as-is and compare legitimate offers so your family can weigh convenience against price.
MAKE STRATEGIC IMPROVEMENTS
Sometimes a cleanout, fresh paint, flooring or a few targeted repairs can add considerably more value than they cost.
We'll look at the likely return before you start spending money. You don't need to remodel a house just because someone says you should.
PREPARE FOR THE FULL MARKET
Sometimes the numbers clearly support preparing the home and putting it in front of the full market.
I'll help determine what preparation is worthwhile, what isn't, and guide the family through the traditional sale from beginning to closing.
Live out of state? That's okay.
You don't have to fly to Colorado every time something needs to be handled at the house.
I can be your local set of eyes. I can walk the property with you by video, meet contractors and cleanout companies, help gather estimates, check on the home, compare offers, and keep everyone in the family informed.
Whether your parents are still living in the home, moving to senior living, or the property is already vacant, I'll help manage the real-estate side locally so your family can make decisions from wherever you are.
Most importantly, if Mom or Dad is still involved, their wishes stay at the center of the conversation.
A REAL FAMILY HOME STORY
Sometimes the highest price isn't the best solution.
When we moved to Green Mountain in 2020, we met our neighbors. They had lived in their home for more than 45 years. Over those decades, as you can imagine, the house had accumulated a lifetime of belongings.
Eventually, both needed nursing care. Their daughter lived in Utah and found herself making repeated trips to Colorado while trying to care for her parents and figure out what to do with the family home.
She was overwhelmed—and understandably so.
Instead of immediately cleaning everything out, remodeling the house, or accepting the first offer that came along, we looked at three different scenarios:
What could the home be worth fully remodeled?
What could it sell for cleaned up and sold as-is?
What could it sell for completely as-is—with the contents and work left to the buyer?
Then we looked at more than just the sale price. We considered the cost, time and stress of traveling back and forth from Utah, hotels, rental cars, cleanout, repairs, contractors and managing everything from another state.
For this family, selling completely as-is made the most sense.
Ultimately, my brother became the buyer. We agreed on a price that worked for both sides, and the family was able to move forward without taking on months of work, expense and travel.
And there's a pretty great ending to this one:
Now Uncle Andy lives next door.
My daughters ended up with their favorite uncle right next door—and a longtime neighborhood home started its next chapter with another local family.
