She currently is in a assisted living facility and her Grandson is paying for that and her mortgage on her house. He needs to get this burden off of him and get her on Medicaid. As I understand it Medicaid will not accept anything under tax assessment ( which in VA. is supposed to equal) fair market value for one year. She has a mortgage as well so if the Grandson can not continue with paying the mortgage on the empty house I see it as she will be forced into a foreclosure bankruptcy situation. How can Medicaid do this to her? The house is assessed for 109,400. and the realtor has said she would be fortunate to hit 90,000. to 100,000. for it ( and this is after fixing it up ) in the current market. I have a call in to the City Assessor but I don't think I will get much of a reduction from them. Any advice? Her Nephew
The big national groups, like Keller Williams, Sotheby's, have templates for their agents to use, so it's rather routine and not a big deal.
BUT I think you have other issues to consider....the grandson is spending probably a good bit of $ to pay the mortgage and expenses on the house, & for gran's care etc. If he is wanting to be reimbursed for all these expenses from the proceeds from the sale of the house with whatever is left once the mortgage is paid off, then you all need to see an elder care or an estate attorney to make this happen if possible so that it is not viewed as "gifting" for Medicaid. If he is not wanting to be reimbursed, that is different. Speak with him about this and then seek legal to get this worked out. Also you will need to make sure you or whomever does the real estate contract has a DPOA that clearly states dpoa for ALL financial as this can be sticky in some states when it comes to real estate and could hold up closing.
Another thing, when you put it on the market, there probably will be a multipage form regarding the condition of the property. There usually is YES, NO, or UNKNOWN choices. Like plumbing is current code - YES, NO, UNKNOWN. Check off unknown on all, otherwise whomever signs the form, might get stuck in a tug of war right before closing on having to pay for repairs in order for it to go to act of sale. An experienced Realtor (that know the 'hood and does lots of closings) will understand the nuances of dealing with elderly owners property and can really make this work. Good luck and let us know what it sells for.
Just out of curiosity, what is the Realtor expecting for days on market for the house and can the grandson pay for all for this expected period of time? Putting a house on the market in this H>V days can cost alot, especially if you have to do twice monthly yard maintenace, run utilities full tilt for months and months and do cosmetic or significant repairs, hire a cleaning service, etc. If not, then sadly you might want to look into just walking away from the house and letting it go into foreclosure especially if the outstanding mortgage & mo. payment is big.