Written for the situation rather than for search engines: what to do first, what not to throw away, and how the timing works in Michigan. If you would rather just talk to someone, call (800) 294-9218.
Almost nobody is ready for this part. The funeral has a script and the paperwork has a process, but a house full of forty years of belongings has neither, and the pressure to just get it done is what leads families to throw away the most valuable things in it.
Clearing a house is not one job, it is five, and doing them out of order is what turns a sale worth thousands into a skip hire worth minus six hundred. The order below is the one estate professionals use.
There is a painful overlap between the things that sell best at an estate sale and the things families clear out before anyone professional sees the house. Almost every one of them looks like clutter.
This is the question families ask most often and get the least straight answer to. What follows is general information about how Michigan handles it, not legal advice, and the estate's own attorney is the person whose answer counts.
Which kind of sale fits takes four questions and uses your own city's housing data. The commission calculator shows what each competing offer actually leaves you with.
Tell us about the home and we will put two or three vetted companies in front of you, usually within one business day.