What is the first thing I should do with my parent's house?

Secure it, then call the insurance company. Change the locks, forward the mail, keep the utilities on. The insurance call is the one that matters most: most homeowner policies change or lapse once a house sits empty, and a lapsed policy on an empty house is how a bad month becomes an expensive one. The rest can wait a week.

Do I need to finish probate before I can sell?

Not always, and it depends on the estate. What has to happen first is the appointment of a personal representative, because that is what creates the authority to sign a listing agreement. Whether your estate needs full probate, and what you can do before it wraps up, is a question for the attorney handling it. Ask that early.

Should I clear the house out before listing it?

Usually yes. Listing photos should show an empty or staged house, and an estate sale needs the contents in place, so the two cannot happen in the same week. Clearing first gets you better photos and a cleaner showing schedule. If your timeline is tight, we will talk through the faster routes for the contents.

How long does the whole process take?

It depends on which pieces apply to you. Getting a representative appointed is the gate, and it is the part nobody controls. Clearing the contents runs anywhere from a few days to a few weeks depending on the route. Listing prep is a week or two. Then the sale takes normal market time. We will not hand you a total before we know your estate.

Do I need to be local to handle this?

No, and a lot of the families we help are out of state. We do the walkthroughs, meet the estate sale company at the house, let in inspectors and contractors, send you video of anything you want to see for yourself, and handle signatures electronically. Plenty of our clients never fly in. Tell us what you want eyes on and we will go look.

My siblings and I disagree about what to do. Can you help?

We are not mediators, so we will not pretend we can settle a family argument. What usually breaks the logjam is a neutral number. Once everyone is working from the same valuation and the same picture of what the house nets under each option, the conversation stops being about feelings and starts being about arithmetic. We can give you that number.

Have you handled estates like mine before?

987 families since 1999, about three a month. What that volume buys you is pattern recognition. We know which step people skip, where the timing collides, and which questions to put to the attorney before they cost you a month. We have seen the version of this that goes wrong, so we know what to get ahead of.

What does all of this cost?

Three separate things, and it helps to keep them separate. We charge a commission on the house sale, agreed in writing before you list. An estate sale company charges its own commission on the contents, taken out of what the contents bring in. Attorney fees are billed by the attorney. Cleanout of whatever does not sell can be a fourth, depending on the contract, and the estate sales page covers it. We do not charge for the first conversation.

Sell · Settling an estate

Settling an estate in Metro Detroit, one step at a time

You are probably dealing with three things at once: a house, everything inside it, and a stack of paperwork nobody explained. Here is the whole sequence, who handles which part, and where we fit. We handle the house. We will point you to the right people for the rest.

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The sequence

What happens, in what order

Secure the house

Change the locks, forward the mail, keep the utilities on, and call the insurance company. Most homeowner policies change or lapse once a house sits empty, which is why this is the urgent one even though it feels like the least important thing on the list. Who: You, with our checklist. How long: First couple of weeks.

Find the will, and find out whether probate is needed

Not every estate goes through probate. Finding out early changes everything that follows, so this is worth a call to an attorney before you make any other decisions about the house or the contents. Who: You, with an attorney. How long: Varies.

Get the personal representative appointed

The court appoints someone to act for the estate. Until that happens, there is usually nobody with the authority to sign a listing agreement, which is why this step sets the pace for everything after it. Who: The attorney and the probate court. How long: Varies.

Take stock of what is inside

A walkthrough, a rough inventory, and an appraisal for anything that might be genuinely valuable. You do not need to sort every drawer yet. You need to know what is in the house before you decide how to clear it. Who: You, plus a company walkthrough, plus an appraiser for specialty items. How long: A week or two.

Clear the contents

Estate sale, online auction, buyout, consignment, donation, or cleanout. Six routes, and they are not equally good. Which one fits depends on what is actually in the house and how much time you have. Who: Whichever company you pick. We make the introduction. How long: Days to a few weeks.

Get the house ready and priced

Repairs, cleaning, photos, pricing, and the as-is versus fix-it-up decision. That last one is usually a math question rather than a taste question, and we will run the math with you before you spend anything. Who: Us. How long: One to two weeks.

Sell, close, distribute

We list it, work the offers, and get it closed. Your attorney handles distribution to the heirs once the money is in. You should not be figuring out that handoff on your own. Who: Us, working with the attorney. How long: Normal market time.

Scope

We do the house. We bring the rest.

Where we fit
We handle the house, and we handle the coordination between everyone else on this list.
That second part is usually what people are actually missing.
Where we partner
We coordinate the estate sale.
We know who does it well here, and we coordinate the timing so the sale and the listing do not collide.
There is no obligation to list with us at the end of any of this.
You can use every bit of this and still list with someone else. We would rather be useful now than pushy about later.
We are not attorneys or accountants.
We will tell you when you need one, which is earlier than most people think.

Three problems

Where do you want to start?

The house itself

Taxes, siblings, and the as-is decision.

Everything in the house

What estate sale companies charge, and the five other ways to clear a house.

Estate Sales →

The legal side

Whether you can sell before probate is finished, and how long it takes. (Coming soon.)

Timing

How long this actually takes

🏛️

Getting a representative appointed

The gate on everything else, and the piece we do not control. It moves at the court's pace and the attorney's pace, not ours.

📦

Clearing the contents

Two to four weeks for a full-service estate sale, days for a buyout.

📷

Getting the house listed once it is empty

Photos, pricing, prep.

🔑

The house sale itself

Normal market time, no different from any other listing.

⏳

The honest total

How long the whole thing takes depends on which of these pieces apply to your estate. We will not quote you a total before we know that, because the honest answer moves a lot from one family to the next. Give us the specifics and we will walk the sequence with you.

⚠️

What stretches it

The most common cause of delay is not paperwork and it is not the market. It is family disagreement. If you and your siblings are not on the same page about whether to sell, everything waits, and that happens in a lot of these. It is worth naming early rather than a month in, when a decision is already overdue.

Track record

Families we have helped through this

estates settled

987

helping families since

1999

across 2,933 Google reviews

4.9

As of 2026

987 families since 1999, about three a month, every month. What that buys you is pattern recognition. We have seen the version of this that goes wrong, so we know what to get ahead of before it costs you time or money.

Answers

Settling an estate, answered

What is the first thing I should do with my parent's house?
Secure it, then call the insurance company. Change the locks, forward the mail, keep the utilities on. The insurance call is the one that matters most: most homeowner policies change or lapse once a house sits empty, and a lapsed policy on an empty house is how a bad month becomes an expensive one. The rest can wait a week.
Do I need to finish probate before I can sell?
Not always, and it depends on the estate. What has to happen first is the appointment of a personal representative, because that is what creates the authority to sign a listing agreement. Whether your estate needs full probate, and what you can do before it wraps up, is a question for the attorney handling it. Ask that early.
Should I clear the house out before listing it?
Usually yes. Listing photos should show an empty or staged house, and an estate sale needs the contents in place, so the two cannot happen in the same week. Clearing first gets you better photos and a cleaner showing schedule. If your timeline is tight, we will talk through the faster routes for the contents.
How long does the whole process take?
It depends on which pieces apply to you. Getting a representative appointed is the gate, and it is the part nobody controls. Clearing the contents runs anywhere from a few days to a few weeks depending on the route. Listing prep is a week or two. Then the sale takes normal market time. We will not hand you a total before we know your estate.
Do I need to be local to handle this?
No, and a lot of the families we help are out of state. We do the walkthroughs, meet the estate sale company at the house, let in inspectors and contractors, send you video of anything you want to see for yourself, and handle signatures electronically. Plenty of our clients never fly in. Tell us what you want eyes on and we will go look.
My siblings and I disagree about what to do. Can you help?
We are not mediators, so we will not pretend we can settle a family argument. What usually breaks the logjam is a neutral number. Once everyone is working from the same valuation and the same picture of what the house nets under each option, the conversation stops being about feelings and starts being about arithmetic. We can give you that number.
Have you handled estates like mine before?
987 families since 1999, about three a month. What that volume buys you is pattern recognition. We know which step people skip, where the timing collides, and which questions to put to the attorney before they cost you a month. We have seen the version of this that goes wrong, so we know what to get ahead of.
What does all of this cost?
Three separate things, and it helps to keep them separate. We charge a commission on the house sale, agreed in writing before you list. An estate sale company charges its own commission on the contents, taken out of what the contents bring in. Attorney fees are billed by the attorney. Cleanout of whatever does not sell can be a fourth, depending on the contract, and the estate sales page covers it. We do not charge for the first conversation.

Start here

Start with a conversation, not a commitment

Tell us what you are dealing with and we will walk you through the sequence. If you are not ready to think about selling yet, that is fine. We will still help you work out the order of operations.

Talk to us (248) 834-3030