I've gotten my head wrapped around Brenda and Erica's proposal: Erica gets the house, Brenda gets one rental property, and me and Aaron get the other rental property. I've discussed it with Aaron and he is on board with it as well. The income potential is a smart move for all of us. Roy and I would like to eventually acquire additional rentals in the future.
We have hired an attorney and the probate process has begun.
Erica flubbed at the bank and told them that mom had passed away. The bank has now frozen mom's personal account. The business is account is still open as it is a different bank. Lesson learned. We will manage to pay the bills until we get the Letters of Testamentary which will give us the ability to manage the estate matters and begin disbursement.
Last Saturday, Brenda and I met up at mom's to clean and empty cabinets. It was weird for both of us. I had Googled ideas about estate disbursement and came up with one that included colored sticky dots. Each beneficiary is assigned a color. We put our dot on all items of interest (no matter the level of priority). Anything with only one dot is claimed by that beneficiary. Anything with more than one dot is put aside to sort through later. I feel that we will be able to come to agreements on those things with multiple dots. Nothing in the house is worth so much money that a battle would be warranted. I also feel that we all are aware of how easy it might be for us to fight over stuff, so we are all bending over backwards to avoid just that. (I hope so anyhow.) Brenda and I went to purchase dots and then began in the kitchen. We decided not to wash everything as it meant a lot more work to do so. We simply pulled stuff out of the cabinets and placed on the counter-top for easy view. Some things, such as utensils and silverware, were placed in boxes and put on the ground. Brenda and I began placing dots on things as we worked. At times we had to talk each other into putting dots on things, reminding each other that we are only noting things of interest, and we can prioritize later. (I hold back a lot. This will be a process that may last several weekends.) Brenda and I discussed again how she, like me, was upset about being left out of the disbursement of dad's property after he passed. We discussed the apartments some and our long term plans for them (I think it's cool how we have that in common). Brenda suggested that she and I split the money in the business bank account. I hem-hawed on this. Hadn't thought that far in advance. Initially, my concern was tax issues. After sitting on it, I feel any money considered profit should be divided equally between me, Brenda, and Erica (with 1/3 of mine going to Aaron). I think that's fair and I think mom would want Aaron included this way too. We worked only until lunchtime and then called it a day. Kaitlyn, Brenda's daughter, was on her way to meet her so I made myself scarce so that Kaitlyn would be comfortable walking through and finding something of interest to her. All in all, it was a good day but I wish Erica had been there too. I worried that she may be absent because she's upset as opposed to her excuse that her husband was off work and she simply wanted to spend time with him. (I'm probably worried for nothing.)
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