How to empty a house in Cologne after our grandmas death

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@mimisgalinos I just got back from Germany, including staying with a German couple who has been dealing with a similar situation.  I could go through my German network, and see if I could find you someone who could  help - be a pt person, organize an inventory. Would you like me to seek help for you, starting with advice from this very responsible, reliable couple?   They would have good ideas, I'm sure.

There are many companies offering such services - look for "Haushaltsauflösungen" or "Entrümpelung".

However, do not hope to get any money out of this: German labour costs are high, the effort of selling items too high (and the 2nd hand values too low) to make it worthwhile except for a few very valuable items (which you would identify and sell yourself - those companies won't do that!).

Alternatively, you could also sell the house with all content and take a price cut in return (instead of paying the above removal companies).

All in all, this is very difficult to manage from abroad.I suggest you take some time off and travel to Germany to take care of this - but it would be weeks rather than days!

I have not had experience with such a situation but there are companies in Germany that specialize in clearing out houses, apartments, offices etc. One should do a computer search with the words Räumungen, Räaumungs-Service, Haushaltsauflösungen or Entrümpelungen. They come in and take everything away. This should be done correctly so that any garbage ends up in the right places for disposal but they will keep anything of value. They charge you and make additional money on reselling things of value. Just maybe you can find one that would give some money back for really valuable things but I can’t say for sure. Generally one needs to pick out the valuable things yourself and then have such a company get rid of the rest.

If one really has high value antiques then one can look for antique shops that buy and sell (Antiquitäten an-und verkauf) They do still exist although online portals have taken over a large section of the market. If one can find someone from such a place that will visit a house and pick things out and give a fair price is another question

To sell general used objects there are flea markets or some special shops that will sell used things on a commission but the rules can vary.  Theoretically, I guess one could try to make contact to someone who sells things on flea markets to make an offer on things they would find in the house. I have bought old things at flea markets in Stuttgart and was surprised at how cheap many things are. And the sellers have to make a profit. Thus I think they generally pay very low prices unless something is a real high value collector item.

Thank you all very much for your help and your quick responses.

From what I understand, companies that do this job is difficult to give you money even if the house has valuable things, and the best option is to pick all the valuable things , keep them aside and try to sell them, ask some charities to come and pick up whatever they want and then pay a company to empty everything from the house.

I was a bit scared to ask a company to do that because some neighbors in Cologne told me some crazy prices for a job like that (20-30.000E) which I found it insane (in Greece that would cost Max 1.000E), but next time I will be there I will look better into it, bring some of these companies to get offesr and then decide what to do. If its really that expensive then I will try to sell the house as it is and make a cut at the price.

Thanks a lot again!!

I looked at some sites and most mentioned either a fixed cost per person per hour or that they would take a look to give an estimate.