Asked out loud, or not.

What does this cost?

Flat fees, quoted in writing after a walkthrough, on the same day as the walkthrough. Records work runs $399 to $2,795 by volume of paper; coordination of a full house runs $950 to $1,500. Never hourly, and never a percentage of the estate. The numbers are on the pricing page, because prices that hide are prices that grow.

Who actually pays you?

The executor engages us, and our work is generally payable from estate funds as an expense of administration, which your attorney confirms. There are also two structures where the executor pays nothing out of pocket at any point: estate-billed through the attorney, and settlement-funded from what the estate produces. Both are on the pricing page.

Are you lawyers?

No, and we're careful about it. We never give legal advice, never interpret a will, and never act as the executor or any kind of fiduciary. We organize facts and prepare paperwork so your attorney's hours go to actual lawyering. If you need an attorney, we'll point you to good ones and take nothing for the introduction.

Do you ever hold our money or valuables?

Never. Valuables are photographed, sealed in numbered bags on camera, and stay with the executor. Crews and sale companies are paid by the estate directly, and sale proceeds go straight to the estate. The only money we ever receive is our own invoiced fee, and it appears in your family's record like every other dollar.

Even in a fast pack-out, where everything has to leave the unit, custody never comes to us. Belongings go into a storage unit rented in the executor's name, paid by the estate, under the family's own lock; we are logged visitors there, nothing more. Valuables don't wait in storage at all: they go into the executor's hands the same day. The one custody we do accept, deliberately and under contract, is the paper we scan, and it comes back: sealed on camera at intake, insured, and returned organized. Objects stay with the family. Information visits us and comes home.

What happens to the will?

It never enters our custody. The original will belongs with the executor and the attorney, and ultimately with the court. Our engagement starts with a keep-out card listing exactly what never goes in a box to us: the will, titles, bonds. We work from copies.

Can you prove nothing was hidden before you got there?

No, and nobody can, so we won't sell you that. What we can do is document everything from the moment we arrive, in front of every heir at once, and prepare the institutional requests, credit bureaus, tax transcripts, policy locators, that reveal accounts no matter what happened to the paper. We're honest about the limit because the record is only worth something if it never claims more than it knows.

What if the family doesn't get along?

That's most families, some weeks, and it's who the record is really for. Every heir sees the same photos, receipts and updates at the same moment, so nobody depends on anybody's version. Everyone flags what matters to them before anything moves, and "that was promised to me" gets logged in the open instead of whispered. We don't take sides; we make the sides unnecessary more often than you'd think.

What if two of us want the same thing?

The refrigerator magnet and the Winchester get the same rule: interest is declared in the open, before anything moves. During the review window any heir can flag any item. "I'd like that" and "that was promised to me" are both logged where the whole family sees them, and a promise gets checked against the will or a signed list, which our paper sorting often turns up. Anything copyable, photos, letters, recipes, gets digitized so everyone receives the complete set, and most fights end right there.

For the rest, what the will directs simply happens; that is a bequest, not a claim. Where the family may lawfully choose, competing interests go through a preference process everyone can watch, the agreement is put in writing, and the executor's distribution lands in the record. We run the process. We never pick the winner.

We live out of state. Does this work?

Completely. You join the documented walkthrough live and direct it on the record, sealed boxes travel by insured carrier, the review happens digitally, and claimed keepsakes ship to each heir's door. If you're coming in for the funeral, we schedule around that single trip.

When you can't be in the room, the room still isn't ours alone. A local person you name in writing, a relative here, your attorney's staff, stands in as your hands while you watch and direct; if nobody local exists, a second professional witness attends, so the hands and the camera are never the same person. And valuables still never come to us: they're sealed on camera and go to a holder you and your attorney choose with proper standing, your attorney's custody, a bank box, bonded dealer storage for firearms, with cash counted by two people on camera and deposited through your attorney.

What if the house is overwhelming? Hoarding-level?

We still come, and there is no judgment in it. Nobody chose this, and a packed house is where the paper work matters most: wills, bonds and deeds hide in exactly the piles everyone is afraid of, which is why nothing goes in a dumpster before the paper has been rescued. The walkthrough prices the job from what's actually there, flat and in writing, so the state of the house changes the number, never the rules.

One line we don't cross: where conditions have become a health hazard, a licensed remediation crew goes in first. We coordinate them, and we start when it's safe.

How fast can you clear an apartment or senior living unit?

One to two documented days on site, then the unit goes back and the daily charges stop. Nothing gets decided in that rush: belongings go to a storage unit in the executor's name with the family's own lock, and every decision happens later, calmly, from the record.

What do you shred, and who decides?

The executor decides, never us. Shredding happens only after the executor signs an itemized manifest, only after a hold window, and every single page is imaged before destruction, so even a mistake would be recoverable. Anything that looks remotely legal is set aside permanently, no matter what.

What about guns?

Documented where they lie, handled only by the executor while our camera records, secured out of an empty house within days, and transferred lawfully, with licensed dealers involved wherever the law calls for it. Our walkthrough checklist also asks about the three loaded guns families forget: the nightstand, the truck console, and behind the kitchen door.

The transfer questions matter more than most families realize, because getting them wrong can be a federal crime committed with completely innocent intent. Whether an heir can lawfully receive a firearm has to be asked before anything is handed over, and registered specialty items, suppressors and short-barreled rifles among them, have their own required paperwork and can never just go home with a relative. We make sure those questions get asked, with your attorney and licensed dealers handling what the law puts in their hands. And when a collection includes something genuinely collectible, the right auction house often brings about twice what a local counter offers, with every sale documented in the record.

What about the dog?

The dog eats today; that's arranged on the first call, before anything else. Placement follows the will if it speaks to it, and the family's decision if it doesn't, with the record keeping it fair. No animal we're involved with goes to a shelter drop as the path of least resistance.

Is our information safe with you?

Scans live on encrypted storage only. After delivery we keep one sealed copy for a year, in case a family drive fails, then delete it and send the executor a certificate saying so. Shredding is certified. And the archive itself belongs to your family, not to us.

Do you buy things from the estates you work?

Never, and no one who works with us does either. A helper with a bid in their pocket isn't a helper. Everything sells through outside professionals at documented prices, with the receipts in the record.

Why "Nine Patch"?

The nine patch is the oldest block in American quilting: the bright scraps of a worn life, cut square, set in order, and sewn into one whole a family keeps. We couldn't say the job better than the quilt says it.