A whole house, handled with some care.

This one is rarely just about the stuff

Most of our estate work comes after a death, a move into assisted living, or a diagnosis that changed the plan. The house is full of forty years of decisions, and someone — usually an adult child, often mid-week, often having taken time off work — has to make all of them at once.

So the pace is different on these jobs. We do not arrive and start filling a truck. We walk the property with you, agree what order rooms get handled in, and start somewhere that is not emotionally difficult. Garages and basements first is a common choice, because it builds momentum without asking anyone to make hard calls in hour one.

The keepsake protocol

Every crew member on an estate job works to the same rule: if it looks personal, it does not go in the truck.

Photographs, letters, documents, military records, jewellery, watches, coins, cash tucked into books, and anything handwritten get set aside in a designated box for you to review. We flag far more than turns out to matter. That is the correct error to make — nobody has ever been upset that we saved a shoebox of old receipts, and the reverse mistake is not one you can undo.

Cash and valuables found during a clearing get reported immediately, not at the end of the day.

For executors, realtors and attorneys

The practical constraints on probate property are usually the calendar and the paperwork, and we work to both.

Donation routing comes back as itemised receipts suitable for estate accounting, which matters when the estate is claiming charitable deductions. We can work to a listing date and coordinate with cleaners and stagers so the property goes on the market the week you need it to. And we will happily talk directly to the attorney or the listing agent so you are not relaying logistics between three parties.

Northern Virginia probate timelines and a hot listing window do not leave much room, and a clearing that slips a week can cost a seller real money.

Hoarding-condition properties

We take these, and we quote them differently, because volume-based pricing does not describe them accurately.

What changes is the pace and the approach. These are worked in stages with the family, often across several visits, and often alongside a therapist or social worker who is already involved. Nothing gets thrown out over someone’s objection. If you are calling about a parent’s house and you are dreading it, say so on the phone — it is a completely normal call for us and there is a way to do it that is not brutal.

What it costs

Whole-property work is priced by volume like everything else, but it usually runs to multiple loads, so it lands above the single-load figures on our pricing page. A modest townhouse clearing typically falls between $900 and $1,600. A large single-family home with a full basement and a packed garage more often runs $1,800 to $3,200.

You get a firm number after a walkthrough, in writing, before anything starts. Given who is usually paying for this and under what circumstances, a surprise at the end would be an unusually poor thing to do to someone.