<prompt> Human: As title says, my father passed away. cancer sucks. Mom currently has no debt except the home mortgage 110,000 and her car 11,000. After home and car is paid off shell have around 80,000 cash. She plans to get back into working part time 800month. This puts her at around 2500month. monthly expenses revolve around 1,200. This leaves her at around 1,300month to do whatever. Going forward on this thread, lets say she pays off the house and car leaving her at 80,000 cash. Couple options:1. My mom is looking to move to a smaller home. Our house needs major renovations foundation and interior is mostly torn apart. Expect around 30,000 put down for renovations. This leaves her at 80,000-30,000 50,000. Lets say she decides to sell the house at 300,000 zillow states homes in my neighborhood are worth this much. Now she has 300,000 in her pocket. Ideally a decent 1 or 2 BR in Dallas is around 200,000. After all housing expenses shes exempt from property tax Id expect her to have around 80,000 in her savings given she purchases a 200,000 home. How should we go about minimizing renovation cost and selling and buying a new home?Option 2Renovate the house 80,000 - 30,000 renovation costWhat should she do with the 50,000?She has 14,000 in her Roth IRA which Ive helped her with. She lives an extremely frugal life and when she stops workin and receives my fathers SS her monthly income should jump to 2,000month. Also, we expect to receive the life insurance money in a couple months so we are trying to plan in advance. Sorry for the long post but trying to figure out the best long term solution.  <response>: My two cents, payoff the car.Dont payoff the house if loan is low interest.Get some real numbers on how much house appraises for right now vs. updating.Have mom get a job she likes right now.Dont rush into anything because whether you realize it or not, after losing a loved one, sometimes you dont make the best decision if rushed.Let the dust settle, evaluate how mom feels in a couple of months, because right now she doesnt have to make a decision, she is fortunate to have resources.She may want to stay in the house, maybe not, but in many cases, it rarely makes sense to fix up a home to sell it.If the homeowner does major repairs and then sells the house, they must tell the sellers all known problems and can be held responsible for the repairs after being sold.Plus putting 30k into a 200000 dollar home and selling it for 230000 dollars isnt smart.Dont get me started on real estate agents, its almost criminal what they charge for what they do,but if you feel you must hire one to sell the house, get referrals.A lot of this is just taking the time to seek answers and not rushing it.Good luck. 