We find as many different situations as we find different clients to serve. Everyone's story, and needs are different and it is important to invest the time together to learn what it is they want and need. Many times that underlying need was one they hadn't identified themselves. We just served a family of a lady who passed leaving a house well lived in and filled with those things that reflected who she was and how she lived. Her nephew from the western part of the country came and tried to find all the things the family wanted, find a buyer for the house, then needed to figure out what to do with all the STUFF.
During our interviews, he was clear that there was nothing there that he or the family wanted, they had taken care of that already, so please sell it, and clean what doesn't sell out. As we sorted through treasures kept being uncovered and discovered. We would reach out to him and let him know what we found, and wanted to be sure he didn't want it, or would like us to put it aside for he and the family. We found all kinds of historic family relics, including a needle point that his many times great grandmother had made while she was traveling on the ship to the "New World." We found cash, we found coin collections, silver, gold and some very valuable stock certificates no one knew they possessed.
The treasures were put aside for him when he would be there to close on the property, the things he wanted sold were sold, everything was cleaned out and ready for the real estate sale. When he got there and saw the amount of family history, you could tell he was overwhelmed, so we were able to put him with the local historic society who were thrilled with his family's donation.
The look of relief and satisfaction where the tension and stress so clearly showed when we first met is what makes our jobs so much fun.