Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Since the documents seem to be important to you, I'd want to make very sure they were secure from prying eyes or the possibility of fire. I'm surprised you didn't take steps to ensure this before now.
Take a weekend and a comfy chair and go through the "stuff". Discard what isn't important. Remove to a safe location the "stuff" that is important. When that's taken care of, call an antiques dealer for an appraisal of what you think might be of monetary value and see if it's worth selling.
After that, you can put the property on the market and probably attract a number of willing buyers. Good luck.
Some people had issues with why I want to hold onto the "stuff". They're mostly personal effects eg. documents, papers, files, etc, not "junk" junk
As to why I don't move it to storage I think I explained that nobody in their right mind would put it in public storage. If you're not familiar with how the system works then rent one and sign a year to year contract with them and you'll get a real good education on how bad renting one is.
As to people not buying the house, well fair enough. If it is a hindrance then it's not a doable option and that is what i was looking for--feedback. The garage is not usable for parking a car. The opening had to be made smaller to strengthen the garage itself to keep it from tilting.
Its the worst option except for all the others, assuming you don't have the space yourself. But, if you had to offer $20 or $50K discount for the property, how much storage unit could you get?
Yes, the stuff is mostly burden. Unfortunately, antiques are very hard to appraise. One may be worth $2 while another is worth $200,000. I've never cared enough to make the effort. The papers are nearly all financial transactions--all the paperwork generated by sales of homes my mother and I owned and took deductions on thus as long as the IRS can call us in for an audit they must be held onto. Truly I'd like to get rid of most of it but...well, for this reason or that...
You need a friend you can trust to tell you the truth to come in and help you. It helps when you have someone who isn't emotionally invested in the things to help you make decisions. Your treasures look different when someone else is holding them or touching them.
The antiques don't have real meaning in your life or you would be enjoying them. You might shop around a couple of places and see what someone will offer you and sell them or have an estate company come in and sell them. They are 'potential' money. You will probably never realize top dollar for them because you don't have the outlets to sell them at top price and you no longer have the storage space to hold them until you get a feel for the top of the market. Get a few quotes from people who will offer you cash money for them and actually sell them. It may not be the 'riches' you envisioned in the past, but it will be a burden lifted.
Since the documents seem to be important to you, I'd want to make very sure they were secure from prying eyes or the possibility of fire. I'm surprised you didn't take steps to ensure this before now.
Take a weekend and a comfy chair and go through the "stuff". Discard what isn't important. Remove to a safe location the "stuff" that is important. When that's taken care of, call an antiques dealer for an appraisal of what you think might be of monetary value and see if it's worth selling.
After that, you can put the property on the market and probably attract a number of willing buyers. Good luck.
Yep, the documents ARE very important since the IRS exists, unfortunately. They can come back and haunt me anytime they want even though on the sale of the houses we paid nearly half a million dollars in capital gains (quarter million apiece). Seems like they're always coming back for more, saying I took this expense or that expense when I shouldn't have, etc.
Unless the garage catches fire, which is highly unlikely, the docs are perfectly safe there. Re the antiques, eh! Another headache. I can call 2 or 3 dealers over to start a bidding war but I'm just too lazy because if the docs have to stay somewhere then why not just keep the antiques and paintings there too. They are expendable, the docs are not. As for the furniture, it's five pieces all chests of drawers, all filled with the docs (she owned and sold about 20 pieces of real estate in her time) so they have to stay too.
Far as selling the property she can't. She bought it for around 15K in the 70's and it's worth about 650K now so she'd pay a huge capital gains. NO MORE DOUGH TO THE FEDS!!!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by JONOV
Its the worst option except for all the others, assuming you don't have the space yourself. But, if you had to offer $20 or $50K discount for the property, how much storage unit could you get?
Let me tell you all about how public storage works: you sign a 1-year contract for $100/month. The next year your rent jumps to $250/month, and the year after that $400. If you don't like it then pack your stuff and move to a new facility. Meanwhile lockers are being broken into and robbed constantly by thieves with premium bolt-cutters. Also they're completely buggy with vermin. Is that where a person should keep their valuables when they have a choice? It's more about security than they money. If I had to sell for 30K less it'd be worth it to me to retain possession of the garage on a long-term lease.
Easy cheap solution for the documents: scan them. There are companies that will do this for you (as I'm guessing you won't bother to do it yourself). Then, take the thumb drives or memory cards and put them in a bank safe deposit box.
Some people had issues with why I want to hold onto the "stuff". They're mostly personal effects eg. documents, papers, files, etc, not "junk" junk
As to why I don't move it to storage I think I explained that nobody in their right mind would put it in public storage. If you're not familiar with how the system works then rent one and sign a year to year contract with them and you'll get a real good education on how bad renting one is.
As to people not buying the house, well fair enough. If it is a hindrance then it's not a doable option and that is what i was looking for--feedback. The garage is not usable for parking a car. The opening had to be made smaller to strengthen the garage itself to keep it from tilting.
If these are important personal documents, you take them with you! If you need to rent a garage to store them, they're not that important.
Doesn't matter if you think a person can or cannot park a car in the garage. Someone could use it to store their lawnmower, yard equipment, grill, their kid who's off to college crap, Aunt Lucy's fine china, turn it into a tiki bar for their yard, etc. If you sell the property, you sell everything. No one in their right mind would rent the garage to you. If you do find someone who's crazy enough to do this, then you will take a HUGE reduction in price. How do you also know they won't go through your stuff? It's their garage on their property that they paid for! You move, you take your crap with you.
The area is experiencing a Renaissance. 2+2 900 sq ft houses are going for 600-700K
I'm not a hoarder. Most of the stuff belongs to my mother and it takes up only about 1/3 of the small 10x20 structure. Lots of it are paintings that aren't really worth much. It's mostly dressers filled with documents RE papers and antiques.
Tell her you're selling the place and she needs to come get her stuff. If she's unable to, then it needs to move with you, go off to the landfill, or be donated. And only 1/3 of 20x20 is quite a bit of crap.
Easy cheap solution for the documents: scan them. There are companies that will do this for you (as I'm guessing you won't bother to do it yourself). Then, take the thumb drives or memory cards and put them in a bank safe deposit box.
Yep. Plus there is a limit on how far back they can go on an audit. So if you've got decades worth of documents, you don't need all of it.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
If you need to rent a garage to store them, they're not that important. 
