Mom is moving. The house has to sell, and the timing is not up to you.

The date belongs to the community, so we work backward from it

Assisted living and memory care placements move fast once a bed opens, and the deposit is usually due before the house is anywhere near sold. Tell us the move-in date on the first call. We build the closing around it, and if the community's date slips, ours slips with it.

If the sale needs to fund the placement, say that too. It changes the order we do things in and it is not something to be embarrassed about. It is the single most common reason families call us.

Sixty years of belongings

Take the photographs, the papers, the jewelry and anything with a story attached. Leave the rest, including the furniture, the garage, the basement and the things nobody in the family wants to be the one to throw away. We handle the cleanout and it costs you nothing.

If there are items you want set aside rather than hauled, point at them and we will keep them separate. Nobody should have to sort a parent's whole house in a week while also moving them.

Power of attorney, guardianship, and when a parent cannot sign

If your parent still has capacity, they sign. If a power of attorney is in place, the agent signs and title will want to see the document. If there is no POA and capacity is gone, an Illinois guardianship may be required before anyone can convey, and that runs through the Probate Division at the Daley Center and takes time.

We can go under contract while that gets sorted and close when the authority is in place. What we will not do is push a signature from somebody who should not be signing.

This is not legal advice. An elder law attorney is worth the money here, and we are glad to give you names with nothing attached.

No showings, and no strangers walking through

A listing means photographs of your parent's home on the internet, lockboxes, and strangers walking through a house somebody still thinks of as theirs. One visit from one person, and then a closing, is a kinder version of this for everybody.