Services
Inherited estates
A house full of a parent's belongings, siblings in three time zones, a probate process that has not finished, and a realtor asking when the property will be empty. This is the most common situation we are called into, and the one with the most moving parts.
First: who is allowed to sell this?
Before anything else, the authority to sell has to be established. It is a question for the estate's attorney rather than for us, but it is the question that gates everything, and we will ask it early.
In Hawaii, personal property may in some circumstances be collected by affidavit thirty days after death, where the gross estate excluding motor vehicles does not exceed $100,000 and no real property requires probate. Larger estates, or any estate where real property has to go through probate, generally require a personal representative to be appointed by the court. Hawaii also provides a summary administration route for smaller estates.
We work from one authorized decision-maker, who signs the agreement. Until that person is identified, we will wait, for your protection as much as ours.
Nothing here is legal advice. Confirm your position with the estate's attorney before authorizing a sale.
Probate is slower than the house
The practical tension in almost every inherited estate is that probate runs on the court's schedule while the property runs on the climate's. A house closed up for months in this humidity is not holding still: upholstery, leather, paper, photographs, textiles and electronics all degrade, and the contents are quietly losing value while the paperwork moves.
That does not mean rushing. It means starting the conversation early, so that when authority is confirmed the preparation can begin immediately rather than starting from zero.
Before you throw anything away
Go through paperwork drawers, jewelry boxes, closets and the garage with someone, not before them. Families routinely discard costume jewelry, older tools, craft and sewing supplies, ephemera and unremarkable-looking kitchenware that carry real value. Remove documents, medications, firearms and anything you are keeping. Leave the rest.
Family
Settle the family questions before the pricing starts
Not because the disagreements are unusual (they are close to universal), but because they are dramatically cheaper to resolve before anything has been staged and priced.
Set a claim deadline
Anyone who wants something specific says so by a fixed date. Items claimed after preparation begins pull apart a staged room and cost the sale money.
Get claimed items out
Physically removed from the property, or listed as excluded in the written scope. "We'll remember" does not survive a sale weekend.
One person signs
Consult whoever you like, but one authorized decision-maker holds the pen. Committee decisions during a live sale are how sales stall.
Working with the property timeline
Most inherited estates end with the house being sold or turned over, which puts a hard date on the far end of the schedule. Working backwards from that date, an on-site sale needs the property accessible and largely undisturbed through preparation, the sale weekend, and clearance afterwards.
Two things worth raising with your realtor early: whether photography for the listing should happen before or after the sale, and whether any staging furniture is expected to remain. Both are easy to coordinate when they are known in week one and disruptive when they surface in the final week.
When the family is on the mainland
Common, and workable. What it requires is clarity about who has authority, an agreed way to handle questions that come up mid-preparation, and a decision in advance about anything sentimental that should be photographed or set aside rather than sold.
It also means the unsold-item plan matters more than usual, because nobody is going to be standing in the house on the last afternoon making judgment calls. That plan belongs in the written scope.
Start with a walkthrough
Tell us where the property is, roughly what's in it, and the date you're working toward. We'll come look, tell you what the estate is realistically likely to do, and put the scope and the rate in writing before you commit to anything.
No cost for the consultation. No obligation to book a sale.