Mother is currently living with me, and my daughter is living in moms house to keep it occupied and keep the utilities paid. Mom has a little money invested that we could tap into to pay for the siding but if the house isnt in moms name can we use her $$ to do it?
? What is happening with rental income? This should be building up to pay for the costs on the property....taxes, insurance, maintenance. If daughter isn't paying FMV for rent, perhaps "rent" needs to be raised. When you transferred the property 10 years ago, what was the reason, was there a plan to make it an investment property or 2nd home? 10 years is a long time to constantly be paying for things without a benefit. Just curious.
You know having a second or third home just isn't feasible for most folks. And really keeping your parents home is just that - but at least you own the home and can sell it & keep the proceeds. My suggestion is to put pen to paper and figure out the hard costs on the house for the last 2 years (the "nut" on the house) and then look at the "majors" on the home (roof, plumbing, siding) & appliances to see which of those need to be replaced and get a rough estimate on that. Now can you & Sissy really truly afford the house? Does the current rent situation make any real difference in all this - my guess is that it doesn't and is just a bandaid of the bigger problem that it's an old house with all sorts of delayed maintenance that will be very expensive to replace to code. Then call a couple of Realtors who sell in the area to see what they have as comps for the house. A Realtor with a bigger group will have all the MLS ability and can do a comps book for your in a couple of days. Then based on those figures deduct the costs of replacing the "majors" and that is what you could maybe get for a sale less Realtors commission. Personally I believe in always using a Realtor as FSBO for an old house with problems is just fraught with problems and sticky legal issues.
One thing folks just don't take into account is that there are costs to selling a home. There will be increased utility cost for 24/7 showing ability; regular yard care; costs to pretty it up and perhaps do staging to get any interest. Ask the Realtor what the DOM - days on market - is for comparable properties. If it's 6 mos, then that could be costly. Your daughter may or may not be a liability for the Realtor to show the house. If there are pets, they need to be gone when showings happen in general. You need homeowners insurance to know that it is under listing by Realtor too as they may require a waiver or an addition to the policy for this. If there are majors obvious, then all that gets deducted from whatever you thought you could sell the house for. Buyers just expect granite countertops & rainfall shower heads if they are expected to pay a good price on a home. Unless you are in a rare area where there is no inventory (this is what is happening in my area - New Orleans - and there are bidding wars for better areas) But this is rare.
If the Realtor price is a lot lower that the current tax assessor figure, I'd bet that only the bottom feeders who pay for tear downs for land value only will put in an offer. Could be just a break even from your past 10 years of costs. But at least you'll get some $ and be done with the property. Good luck dear.
Depending on location of said house, if in a booming area, you could sell the house *as is* without fixing one thing selling to an investor [via a Realtor] who will go in and fix up the place and re-sell the house.