Mom is in a nursing home with dementia and bedbound. She was placed a year ago against her wishes. She does not want her home sold, as she plans to return to it. She cannot return as she needs 24/7 skilled nursing care. She is otherwise healthy, able to communicate effectively and voice her needs and preferences effectively to others. She has sufficient financial resources to pay for nursing home care for many years. Thus, Medicaid rules and limitations do not apply to her. I live out of state and feel the burden of maintaining her home as the years go by. She lives in Colorado.
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If the house is vacant, homeowner's insurance may not cover if there's an insurance event. Also, the value will decline the longer it is not lived in. In short, there's no upside to keeping it.
Once you clean it out or dispose of personal property you will be ready to put it on the market. Now is a good time to engage in that process without the pressure of deadlines.
Find a good and reputable agent who will go the extra mile for you. It will be a true relief. If you don't do this now, then you will have to go through probate before you can sell should your mother take a turn the other way and pass on.
I am an agent in another state from where my LO lives. We sold his house and it has freed up more time to focus on my LO rather than his house.
As a side note, it was interesting being a client rather than the agent.
Does ur DPOA say that you can sell property, if so, sell the house, My Moms was such an albatross and I lived in town. It was a 123yr old farmhouse that needed a lot of repair she could not afford. Most of her SS was going to keeping it up. I am in NJ and we have the highest property taxes in the nation. Once she was on Medicaid, I paid out of pocket for the utilities. The taxes I let go. It eventually sold but for pennies. I so wish I had talked her into an apartment after Dad died.
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Her financial resources might go further (time and scope) if Mom were home with care coming in to her. If that's feasible, and you really need to ease into selling the house, perhaps you could work through a realtor to offer a rent-to-own deal where the renter could have a portion to themselves while Mom's there then take over the entire house when she's gone.
Can you not hire a property manager locally? Is the home rented out? That would seem to be the best option.