I’m one of the rare Millennials who does own a home—but only because my parents helped me pay for college, so I was able to save for a down payment. And my homebuying experience was weird—I randomly stumbled across the perfect place, put in an offer for $2k less than asking price, and they accepted same day.

As you might imagine, that’s not how it normally goes. I didn’t get a real taste of real estate until my parents kicked the bucket and I had to sell their condos. There’s plenty of real estate advice online already, but dead parents add a whole is this place haunted? vibe to the situation.

It’s stressful—but I’ve broken it down into steps to make things a little more manageable. (Disclaimer: This isn’t comprehensive, but it’s the best I could do with a short list.)

Step 1: Find the property deed

Assuming your parents were at least vaguely organized, the deed should be with their other important papers. If your parents were disorganized…good luck, I guess? If the property is part of your parents’ trust, then you should find papers to that effect.

• If you live in Florida, Michigan, Texas, Vermont, or West Virginia, your parents may have a Lady Bird deed, which transfers the property directly to you or a relative without going through probate. Lucky you! (I wrote more about that here.)

• Before your parents died, they may have also done a Quitclaim deed, which allows them to easily transfer the property to you or a relative. If that’s the case, they should have told you about it.

• If the property is part of your parents’ living trust, and you’re the successor trustee, then you should be able to sell it just fine.

Step 2: Contact the bank

If your parents have already paid off their property—great! But it’s likely that your parents have a mortgage. Look through their mail and/or email to find mortgage statements from a bank or lender—it might not be the same bank they use for their regular accounts.

Call the bank or lender. If you’re like me, you’ll end up with a new employee who has never encountered this situation before and starts crying. They’ll need the usual stuff to let you take over the mortgage—death certificate, letter of testamentary or trust paperwork, parents’ social security number, your social security number, the routing number for the account you’ll be using to pay. You’ll almost certainly have to send it through the mail, but if they’re cool they might let you email it.

Just to be clear: you are not legally responsible for paying your parents’ mortgage. Any outstanding debt should be paid from what’s left of their estate—not your personal money. You can always let the house go into foreclosure if you absolutely must.

Here’s more info about this process from Rocket Mortgage.

Step 3: Contact the insurance company

Same deal with the bank. Your parents’ property should be insured, so you’ll need to keep paying for it while you sell—again, not with your own money. That’s what the money from your parents’ estate is for. You’ll have to give the insurance agent the same paperwork as the bank. They’ve encountered this situation before—it’s their job to guide you through it. If you have questions, don’t be afraid to ask them.

You can also talk to the agent about switching insurance plans—it’s your home for now, at least. You don’t have to keep the same policy as your parents. Here’s more info about what to do in this situation from Policygenius.

Step 4: Figure out property taxes

If your parents had a mortgage, it’s likely their mortgage payment includes escrow that covers property taxes and insurance. But maybe not! My dad was a weirdo who liked to pay his property taxes separately. And if your parents’ property was completely paid off, then you’ll have to cover the property taxes regardless.

Look at the mortgage statements or contact the bank/lender to determine whether taxes are covered via escrow. If not, search for the tax assessor in the county where your parents lived. Many times you can look up and pay their taxes online—you might find property tax bills in their papers, which will help. Here’s more info about post-death property taxes from Cake.

All together now: you shouldn’t be personally paying for this—the estate should.

Step 5: Contact the HOA

It’s entirely possible your parents aren’t part of a Homeowners Association, or HOA. It’s more likely if they lived in a condo or townhome—any kind of community rather than a bigger subdivision, though sometimes subdivisions have them as well.

If there’s no HOA, so much the better. If there is an HOA, you need to let them know your parents have died. They’ll tell you what information and paperwork they need—probably the usual. Death certificates, letter of testamentary or trust paperwork, etc.

Until you sell the house, you’ll need to take over the HOA fees—or rather, the estate will. As I keep saying, you should not personally be paying for any of this. Sometimes HOAs are run by big companies, but other times they’re small groups of local residents—you might be able to arrange a better payment deal with them. They worst they can say is no.

When you do end up selling the house, you’ll need to notify the HOA, and you’ll need to disclose information about the HOA to the buyer. Your realtor can help you with that.

Step 6: Find a realtor

When I decided to buy a house, I clicked a button on Zillow, and POOF! I had a realtor. This is not a good strategy (though my realtor turned out to be great).

A better idea is to search online and look through reviews, or to ask friends and family for recommendations. It’s worth your while to chat with a few different realtors to see who will give you the best deal. Realtors don’t get paid unless someone buys the house—they take a cut of the sale. (Though there may be a fee if you choose to end a contract with a realtor early.) The timing on the contract may also differ—I’ll sell your house in 3 months versus I’ll sell your house in six months.

Once you select a realtor, you’ll sign a contract with them. And then you should add them to your contacts—they’re about to become your best friend. They will call you a lot—for information, for showings, etc. The good news is they’ll do most of the work for you, and they’ll answer all your questions. It’s literally their job.

If you live in a different state than your parents, don’t worry—the realtor should be able to have you sign documents electronically or via overnight mail. In my experience, it’s helpful to at least meet the realtor in person, but it’s not strictly necessary. You can do the entire thing from far away if you want.

• What if a friend or relative is interested in the property? Talk to your realtor—you can make exceptions in the contract for certain people and give them a specific timeline to decide whether they want to buy.

• Can I sell the property myself? If you want! You don’t technically need a realtor—I sold my parents’ condo in Florida to their neighbor without one. If you’re going the for-sale-by-owner route, you’ll still need to pay a local title company to legally process all the paperwork for you—they should be able to provide you with a contract you can sign with the buyer, and they’ll let you know what other paperwork they need. (Surprise! Death certificate, letter of testamentary/trust paperwork, etc.)

• Can I move into the house? Why not? Free house! Well, sort of. You’ll need to take over the mortgage, insurance, taxes and any HOA fees yourself. If multiple siblings or relatives are inheriting the property, you’ll need to buy the others out of their share. That’s what we did with my parents’ condo in Wisconsin—my sister paid me for half of it and moved in.

Step 7: Put the house on the market

The good news is that the realtor will handle most of this stuff for you (unless you’re selling the place yourself, in which case you should rely on the title company). But there will still be lots of paperwork involved. I won’t go through the whole process of selling and buying a house—that’s easy to find online. But here are a few things you can expect:

• Earnest money – When someone makes an offer on the house, they have to give you “earnest money” to prove that they’re serious about buying it. The amount depends on the value of the property—your realtor will guide you.

• Inspections – After an offer has been made and the house is under contract, there are going to be lots of inspections. The buyers may want you to fix certain things before they close the deal. If there are any open permits on the property, you’ll need to have them inspected and closed before you can sell. Again, your realtor can help—but keep in mind that you may have to pay a handyman or two.

• Don’t expect the list price – In addition to any cut your realtor takes and whatever taxes there might be, if your parents were still paying a mortgage on the property, you have to pay back the rest of it when you sell. So if you’re selling the house for $400k, and you still have $100k left on your mortgage, you’ll only get $300k. (Only $300k, lol)

• Closing – The house isn’t officially sold until closing, when all parties involved sit down and sign a gazillion papers. This doesn’t have to be in person, so if you live elsewhere, don’t fret.

And there you have it! You’ve rid yourself of a property. Congratulations.

A special note on emotions

It is totally normal for emotions to run high when selling a house, especially your parents’ house. It may be your childhood home, where all your formative memories were made! And even if it’s not, it can still be difficult to process that some stranger is barging in and taking over your parents’ space. You’re not weird for mourning a place as much as the people who lived there.