Adelaide's Story: How she used a sale-leaseback to take care of her estate planning

Planning your estate can be overwhelming, especially when it comes to most people’s largest asset—their home. How can you avoid leaving your children with the challenge of selling your home? 

The Truehold team talked to Adelaide, a Truehold resident in Missouri, who used a sell and stay transaction to sell her home, stay in it, and offload key burdens of homeownership. 

The Family Home 

As Adelaide watched her home being built 65 years ago, she knew she wanted to spend the rest of her life there. Now, her home is filled with memories of raising children with her husband: “It was a very happy, very happy home.” 

Adelaide’s home is central to her life. “I want to keep this home because I have a lot of hobbies.” She loves genealogy, gardening, quiet prayer time, and going through photos of when the kids were little. “If I have to go to a small senior place or something with two rooms or something like that, I’d go crazy.”

As home expenses began to add up, however, she grew concerned about how she could hold onto the house. Maintaining a home is expensive, and “the money wasn't there to cover all of that.” 

As part of her estate planning, she asked her kids if any of them would want to inherit their childhood home—none of them were interested. She began to worry about leaving the house to them to have to clean out and sell when she’s gone. With family all over the country, she knew it would be difficult for her children to handle her estate and get the best possible price for her home. 

“Since I have a sizable loan I didn't want to leave for them, my answer was Truehold. It really came at a good time.”

“My answer was Truehold. It really came at a good time.”

“My friend, this is for you.”

When Adelaide saw mail from Truehold, she called her friend Tom, a real estate agent for forty-two years. Tom researched Truehold and told Adelaide, “My friend, this is for you.”

Adelaide, like many Truehold residents, had her real estate agent work directly with Truehold on her behalf for the whole process. 

She’s relieved to no longer have the responsibility of some of the “huge expenses” of homeownership: “No…property insurance, no property taxes. I don’t have to worry about any essential repairs... I don’t want to have that over me and have to do without or to put the money out for it, and it's just taking a lot of concern and worry out of me.” 

Once Adelaide made up her “mind after Tom told me everything, I never looked back.” Since closing, Adelaide has already had property management come do “different things for me that I have suggested they do to their house…They've done everything I have asked them to do.”

“It's just taking a lot of concern and worry out of me.”

Family First

Adelaide puts her family first when thinking about her estate. “You have to look ahead, thinking of my family member that would be the executor of my estate. All of them are very pleased that I've done this, and I've got a lot of worries off of me, and they do too. They know that I've got funds to live on and can be comfortable in our home. So that's the reason I did what I did.”

“You pray for things and pray for things and pray for things, and everything came together. I tell you, I never dreamed that it would be this easy, you know, because it was always a concern. How can I trust real estate? How can I do this, how can I do that? I don't know anything about that.” 

“So I have to live now, and this is my choice. I've been blessed with good health and as long as the good Lord says I can stay here, you know, we're all set…It's right from the heart for me, because that's just exactly the way I feel.”

“I never dreamed that it would be this easy”

Thank you to Adelaide for sharing your story! 

Do you want to finish your estate planning without having to move? Through Truehold’s sell and stay transaction, you can sell your home yourself and keep living in it as a renter.

_{This story is based on an interview conducted between the customer and a member of the Truehold team. All quotes are from the customer, with some words cut for length and clarity. The customer may have received compensation for their time.}