Usually while grieving, often with siblings, and almost always in a house that has not been updated in a long time.
The instinct is to start clearing, and it is usually the wrong first move. Before the house is emptied:
These houses are usually dated rather than damaged, and families reliably overestimate what renovating will return. A full kitchen replacement in a house being sold to a buyer who will renovate anyway is money spent to please the seller, not the market.
What is worth doing is narrower: clean thoroughly, deal with anything that reads as deferred maintenance, and get the systems documented so the age of the furnace and roof is a stated fact rather than a discovery. Selling as-is → · Which renovations pay →
Decide early, and in writing, who speaks to the REALTOR®. Not who decides — who speaks. Most of the friction in these sales comes from three people receiving the same information at different times and in different words.
Agree the price you would accept before the first offer arrives, not after. It is a much easier conversation in the abstract.