‘Selling the Family Home’

Selling the family home is a rite of passage for many families. In some cases, the house has been in the family for decades and it is the site of so many of the family’s memories. In the attic are trophies from high school successes, wedding gowns in dry cleaning bags and year books from every level of schooling. We need to be sensitive to the emotional factor in doing our work.

When we get the call, we come to the house and meet with the family and start the conversation. The family has many questions about the process and what condition the house needs to be in in order to maximize its value. They ask what else they need to attend to, to get the house ready for sale.

We recently had an assignment where the family had owned the house for 49 years. As is so often the case, the family altered the house during their tenure including converting a powder room into a full bathroom and building a deck. Once the family hired us to be their agents, we went to work to resolve this problem for the family. We started by going to the building department to see the file on the property. We learned that the CO (Certificate of Occupancy) on the house was missing both of these alterations.

The family asked for our help getting the alterations on the CO. We reached out to a local architect who specializes in this type of work. Legalizing alterations is a time-consuming process. Permits have to be obtained, work has to be done and inspected, and finally the building department has to sign off. By starting the work while the house was being emptied and prepared for market, we were able to complete the legalization in a timely basis. It took almost six months and thankfully did not delay the closing. If the legalization process was not started as quickly as it had been, the closing would have been delayed and would have been a burden on the family.

This is just an example of how our team goes above and beyond.