Wow, Im flattered that some have found my postings useful. Please note this will be kinda long, my apologies in advance. I think for the OP, this comes down to: wills and powers of attorney can indeed work for you and your parents, because they do give you a bit more flexibility over a Trust - at the increase of some time/hassle/expense. If you can deal with this, itÂll be fine. Setting up a trust does not always have to do with the size of the estate. For instance, we have set up a trust, because we don't have children and have selected two people who are less related to us than some others are, to be our heirs. Could we do this with wills? Absolutely. Would the estate, once both of us die, get settled as fast and as cheaply, if we did wills instead of a trust? Nope. Does the trust REDUCE the flexibility for the Survivor, once one of the original Trustors dies? Yes! It is absolutely an excellent idea for your parents to sell the house to pay for retirement expenses. We had to practically browbeat my widowed MIL to recognize reality and do the same thing. Medicare doesn't pay for LTC except in limited circumstances and for limited time (100 days). Medicaid is what 80% of the residents in nursing homes use, but you must spend down the assets, and the "lookback" period has increased dramatically, I believe. What many people don't realize -- we didn't until we actually had to deal with the death of my MIL's husband and then with the house sale four years later -- is that there are some very real disadvantages to Revocable Trusts. A poorly written trust, IMHO, is worse than useless; it is a waste of money. Each RT should be an individually crafted document to suit not only your aims and assets and tax situation, but also your family situation. So obviously, this is a LIVING document. As your life and the lives of those named in your estate plans change, the legal documents should be kept updated! Unfortunately too many people do what my in laws did - set up a document without much knowledge about what they were doing, and then never looked at it again. So 25 yrs later when my husband's stepfather died, his portion of the estate became IRREVOCABLE. Unfortunately since they had not updated the contingent trustees or beneficiaries those lists were woefully out of date (and the others are right that anyone can be named a trustee. You could name me, a perfect stranger, but please don't: I would be happy if I never settled another estate again in my life!). It took some expensive legal review before we were able to craft a strategy to update those lists without a lot of trouble, time, and mandatory court appearance. Trustees do not get paid, BTW, unless the trust provisions provide for it. The only time they are paid is if there are no successor trustees available (everybody named has resigned, is incapacitated, or dead) so the courts must appoint a professional trustee. Executors of wills get paid a flat fee determined by your state laws, no exceptions. Many people do not realize that in a community property state like California, if you are not careful in the language used in a couple's Revocable Trust, when one of the original Trustors dies, the survivor is NOT always guaranteed full use of the now-Irrevocable portion of the estate! It is, in fact, quite common for trust language to state that the surviving Trustor is only entitled to the interest earned off the principal amount; or, interest plus reimbursement for health, education and maintenance, as long as principal is NOT invaded. I imagine this is because for so long, trusts were used almost exclusively by wealthy people to pass along assets to not only their children, but their grandchildren, etc. However, for most middle-class people, they would assume (at least, we did, but we were wrong!) that when one Trustor dies, the surviving Trustor is allowed full use of the "entire pot". But as it turns out, ONLY if the original trust allows it, is that true. In fact, my MIL's original trust had some very non-standard language in it, and she IS given the power to invade principal on her deceased husband's Irrevocable trust. The investment management firm we hired to handle her now-sizable amount of cash (from the sale of the house), mentioned just yesterday that they were very surprised that she has this right; they don't often see it in their clients' trusts documents! Needless to say, when creating our own RT recently, my husband and I included language to give the Survivor Trustor as much legal and financial leeway as possible over both portions. I would suggest once one of your parents dies, to see if at that point, you could convince the survivor (who MUST be still mentally competent) to create a trust. A trust with only one Trustor is a lot easier to deal with. Whatever happens, I do urge you to talk to a good estate attorney (expect to pay for the consultation) as well as a tax advisor, so that you have an idea of what the options are for you and your parents, depending on how things turn out. Having the knowledge beforehand is invaluable, rather than rushing around under an emotionally stressful situation, asking for advice and not being able to judge the quality of it, which can be dangerous. Good luck to you going forward. I hope everything works out for you and your family.

I stumbled across this when I was trying to get some guidelines on the exact same thing. Don't get discouraged by some of these comments! I am doing the same thing as you, although for a different reason. My son gets an allowance, and he also has "non-paid" household chores that he *must do* regardless because he is part of the family. However, he is only 13, and recently was not careful and left his cell phone somewhere that the dog could get to it. Consequently, the phone is destroyed. I am not going to replace the phone, but I would like to give him the opportunity to earn money and replace the phone himself. He is only 13 so can't go out and get a job. He could certainly do odd jobs around the neighborhood - snow shoveling, dog walking, etc. - or sell old toys/clothes on Craig's List, and I will certainly encourage those ideas, but it will help him (and me) if I give him some other chances to earn some cash. I have made a list of extra "paid" chores he can do that I will pay him for. Steam clean the carpets, help clean out the back room of the basement, help organize items for charity, and the like. The only useful suggestion you received was paying minimum wage, although that could easily be taken advantage of. So we are no closer to an answer, I guess!!

Maybe we can continue this threat? 1.2005 in IL.Sold in one day for asking price.Town house in a sellers market. 2.2016 in Co.Buyers market.Nice house on a corner lot.Recived low ball,one person backed out.Finally sold after 6 months after market improved but had to lower price 5 times. 3.2021 in wine country Co.Sold in 24 hours close to asking price.I will always regret selling this one( remodeled victorian in a a perfect location. 4.2023 rural tx in down market.Over 300 days on the market,one low ball offer.A lot of showings but no other offers.Unique house with couple of acres.Reduced price 5 times already.This house is going to be the death of me.I wish I never bought it.

Taxes vary by state, and possibly town and county. Any local realtor will know the answer. You can expect to pay a realtor's commission; though while 6% may be standard, sometimes you can negotiate for la lower rate. There are low cost or discount brokers that cost less, but then they DO less. You could sell it yourself for no fee, but then you'd have the costs of marketing, advertising, fees to get on MLS, or FSBO listings etc. Plus you'd have the not insubstantial work of showing the house. In addition, your legal expenses might be higher, as you would need to lean on your attorney for more than simple contracta review. No matter which way you sell, you will have some legal expenses, if only for drawing up the conveyance documents (deeds). Then you will, perhaps, have some recording fees, or local taxes. If the house is your primary residence, and has been so for at least 24 months of the preceeding several years, you should not have any income or capital gains taxes, at least for the Feds. (If you have owned it less, there are some special circumstances where the time limit is waived.) States may vary. Depending on how school and property taxes (or other local assessments) are collected, you may, or may not, need to prorate them for the portion of your taxable period and pay that portion at the time of closing. This depends on whether your taxes are prepaid for the upcoming period, or are collected after the fact. This varies from state to state. You will also have the likelihood of some fixing up costs to get the house in top shape. HTH, Molly~