The Inherited House

Someone has to deal with the house. This book is for the someone.

You have just lost a parent, and along with everything else, there is now a house - full of forty years of a life, with the heat on, the mail piling up, and siblings who each have an opinion. Nobody teaches you what comes next. This book does, in the order it actually happens:

• The first thirty days: locks, insurance, the mortgage, and what you may not do yet
• Probate in plain words - who can act, and when
• The one decision everything depends on: keep, rent, or sell, with a one-page worksheet
• Siblings: buyouts, what "fair" means when one of you did all the work, and the conversation that ends in a decision instead of a grudge
• Clearing it out, preparing the house or selling as-is, pricing it, and the estate's closing - through the final accounting and the last conversation

Every mechanism is explained calmly and checked against public sources - the IRS, federal agencies, and state courts - with pointers to your own state's rules, a master checklist, a 90-day timeline, and a glossary of every term. No jargon. No scare tactics. No number that will be stale next year.

You will follow one family - three siblings and the house on Linden Street - from the week of the funeral to the closing table, so every step is shown, not just described. Their choices are not recommendations. Yours will be made on purpose, and made together.