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If you are the adult child of a hoarding parent, you undoubtedly face many challenges. For example, you may be in a situation in which the decision has been made for your parent to move out of the home in which he or she has been living and into another type of residential situation. As part of that process, the need may exist to prepare your hoarding parent’s home for sale. There are a number of facts and factors that you need to bear in mind when it comes to preparing a hoarder’s house for sale:
- Understanding hoarding
- Possible and probable problems associated with a hoarder property
- Hiring a hoarder property cleanup company
- Traditional real estate staging
Understanding Hoarding
Before we dive deeper into understanding what you need to do to prepare your hoarding parent’s home for sale, you need to have a basic understanding of what hoarding is all about. First and foremost, you need to understand that hoarding is a medically identified mental health disorder. The condition is known as hoarding disorder. Prior to being classified as a mental health disorder, hoarding essentially is considered to be a kind of obsessive compulsive disorder.
Because hoarding disorder is a recognized mental health condition, in nearly all cases an individual afflicted with this disorder will require professional mental health assistance and support. Indeed, the involvement of a mental health professional with a background in working with hoarding clients is imperative when it comes to working with a hoarder to understand what needs to be done to get his or her residence on order and prepared for sale.
Possible and Probable Problems Associated With a Hoarder Property
The reality is that there is a fairly broad spectrum of issues that can be associated with hoarder property or the residence of an individual who has hoarding disorder. Of course, there is the obvious problem with an accumulation of items at the premises.
Oftentimes, the amount of “stuff” accumulated by a hoarder can prove to be massive. Moreover, when it comes to what a person with hoarding disorder “collects,” the things can even include such items as garbage and rotting food. There are instances in which a hoarder hoards animals, particularly cats.
Beyond what is actually hoarded by a hoarder, you need to bear in mind that the impact on the house can extend beyond the items collected and removing those objects to actual damage to the physical premises. A hoarder is not likely to be keeping up with maintenance to the premises. In addition, as a hoard expands, the stuff contained in or around a home can cause damage to the physical structure itself.
In the final analysis, if you are the adult child of a parent who has hoarding disorder, you need to be prepared for what might prove to be a significant amount of work that needs to be done before that parent’s home can be placed on the market for sale.
Hiring a Hoarder Property Cleanup Company
When it comes to dealing with hoarder property cleanup, your first instinct may have been to undertake that process on your own. If you are like many people, once you have had the chance to more closely examine what is involved in that process, you may have become interested in learning what alternatives might be available to you. Chief among them is hiring an experienced hoarder property cleanup company like Eco Bear.
A hoarder property cleanup company like Eco Bear has the background and experience necessary to efficiently, safely, and thoroughly remediate even the most disastrous hoarding situation imaginable. This includes the elimination of biohazardous waste that very well may exist in a home occupied by an older parent with hoarding disorder.
The bottom line is that a hoarder property cleanup company can ensure that the premises are restored to fully livable condition. For example, Eco Bear can have your parent’s home ready for the marketplace within the time frame that works for your mother or father and others involved in getting the property prepared for sale.
Traditional Real Estate Staging
Once a hoarder property remediation company has had the chance to do its work, the premises will be ready for what normally follows in the preparation of a home for sale. This can include traditional real estate staging.
Professional staging may be advisable if there has been some knowledge in the neighborhood or elsewhere that your parent had been hoarding in the residence that is desired to be sold. Professional staging of the property before the for sale sign goes up in the yard makes sure that you are putting the best foot forward when it comes to ensuring that the home is fully prepared to be seen by prospective home buyers, including those who may have at least some inkling that a hoarder had once occupied the property.
