Looking to sell an estate in Salt Lake City? I can help.

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Working with me to sell your Salt Lake City estate

Babs De Lay

Read my full bio here.

If you’ve become responsible for selling the real and personal property of someone who has passed away, you have some big decisions to make. I can help you do it the right way and help protect not only the assets of the deceased, but protect yourself as the executor/trustee or personal representative. I’m Babs De Lay and I have almost four decades of experience in helping heirs, personal representatives, trustees and their attorneys with selling property and estates in Utah. While there may be important reasons why a relative may wish to sell a deceased relative’s home as quickly as possible, that may not be possible. Typically, a decedent’s house can only be sold by the executor. The executor can only sell the house if it is in the best interest of the estate to do so as seen by the probate court (if necessary), and the executor must take into account special issues related to selling and the potential proceeds. It can seem overwhelming, especially if you live out of state.

When a parent dies, it’s natural for the children to participate in the process of settling the parent’s affairs. It can be a stressful process that can sometimes be made easier when there are more people contributing to its completion. But siblings don’t always get along. And even if they do, sometimes the death of a parent and settling their affairs can reveal tensions that you didn’t know existed. Or perhaps you’re the only living child of your parents, and you’re confronting this process alone. In either case, while you may assist in much of the work required to sell your parents’ house, the actual responsibility of “selling” your parents’ house rests with the person who’s appointed to settle the estate. The most common way someone is appointed to settle the estate is through a will. A person appointed in a will is called an “executor.” The executor is charged with certain responsibilities to settle the estate legally, and selling the house can be one of those responsibilities. If your parent did not have a will, or they had a will but didn’t appoint someone as their executor, then the probate court will appoint someone to serve in this capacity. This person is called a “personal representative.” Once appointed by the court, the personal representative assumes the same role as the executor. When a parent dies, it is often the case that they appointed a child as the executor of their estate. Likewise, if the court appoints a personal representative to handle the estate of a parent, it is not uncommon that it appoints one of the children. However, only the person who is named as the executor or personal representative is legally responsible for selling your parents’ house when they die.

If this person appointed by the court or will is you, then this information will help you figure out what you need to do before you sell your parents’ house and some steps you can take to make the process go as smoothly as possible.

As the Broker for your estate, I’ll help you:

  • create a logical and seamless plan to help you by working together to assess what the estate needs
  • act, with permission, and when necessary, be as sort of a ‘general contractor’ to hire and manage any professionals/subcontractors needed such as estate liquidators, cleaners, haulers, repair people, etc.

Helpful tips about estates and estate sales

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How to sell an estate or property I’m responsible for

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Reviews

“Babs, it’s rare these days to be able to congratulate someone on living up to a reputation of integrity, professionalism, honesty and hard work. Congratulations on helping our family sell the home in Midvale!”

“We interviewed three agents to sell our parents home in Olympus Cove. What a waste. One promised we’d get $100,000 more for the house than any other agent, but couldn’t back up his claim with any data. The other said he’d sold more homes in the neighborhood than any other agent but was going to charge us a lot to add us to his ‘statistics’. We are grateful you could help us. Glad that is over. Months of “interesting” experiences…… You did a great job. I think u sensed the “dynamics”… at play in the family of 12 adult kids!”

“Thank you very much for your help with the sale of our parents home!!! We appreciate your attention to this matter and the professional way you handled the issues involved. I would have never dreamed that we could pull this off so quickly. You made a difficult process rather painless. You have my vote for REALTOR OF THE YEAR!. Hopefully we will have an opportunity to work together again. With all my thanks.”

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