Weichert Realtors - Lakepoint
Dane County, Wisconsin
If you're settling an estate, the house is usually the hardest part.
I'm Gabe Albrecht. I sell real estate in Dane County, and I've been licensed for 21 years.
Most of my work now is with families in the middle of something. An estate to settle. A parent leaving a house they've been in for forty years. A marriage ending. The house sits in the middle of all of it, and it's rarely the part anyone feels ready for.
If you got a letter from me, this page is why. You should be able to look someone up before you call them back.
What I know about this
I read every open estate filed in Dane County in one month, docket by docket.
Fifty five of them. I wanted to know how this actually goes here, so I could stop guessing and start answering.
A few things surprised me. Most families brace for months of waiting before they can do anything with the house, and here that is usually not what happens. Letters often issue within a few days of the filing. But roughly one estate in five carries special administration authority only, and a special administrator frequently cannot sell real property without the court's express authorization. Those two facts point in opposite directions, which is exactly why nobody should be telling you what your timeline is before they know which one you're in.
Your attorney decides what applies to your estate, and none of this is legal advice. What I can do is tell you what typically happens in this county, and what it means for the house.
What I won't do
I won't pressure you. I won't ask you to list the house on a first call. And if the right answer is to wait, I'll tell you to wait.
What I can do
Four things, mostly.
Tell you what the house is worth, and what it would take to get more for it. Sometimes the answer is that it takes nothing, and the house is better sold as it sits. You should hear that from someone before you spend a dollar on it, not after.
Put together a value as of the date of death, if the court needs one for the inventory. I can prepare that for you or send it straight to your attorney. It is not an appraisal, and it says so on its face.
Be the person who's there when you're not. A lot of what slows an estate down is logistics. Somebody has to find the right people and check that they're the right people, be at the house to let them in, get the locks changed, keep the lawn from turning into a complaint, and stay on all of it until the work is actually finished. If you're doing this from outside the area, that's a weight that shows up every week, and it doesn't have to be yours. You make the decisions and the estate pays its own bills. I'll do the running around.
Help with the question nobody has asked yet. When the house sells, somebody usually has to figure out where they go next. If that person is you, that part is real work too, and I can help with it.
Coming in September
The checklist I promised
If you got my letter, I said I'd send you a short guide to the first steps on a house in probate. I'm writing it now. It will be free, it will be one page you can print and leave on the kitchen counter, and it will be here next month.
If you want it the day it's ready, email me and I'll send it to you.
Asking for the checklist doesn't put you on a list and doesn't start anything. I'll send you the guide. If you want to talk after that, you'll tell me.
Getting hold of me
Call, text, or email. All three reach me.
If it's up to me, call. Ten minutes on the phone tells me more than a page of typing does, and it usually saves you a week of going back and forth. But use whichever one you're comfortable with.
All three come straight to me. Not to an assistant, not to a call center, and not to a form that goes somewhere.
- Call or text (608) 347-8672
- Email gabe@gabealbrecht.com
- Serving Dane County, Wisconsin