Estate Sale

Estate Sales (Tag Sales) are held when someone wants to sell most or all of their possessions. Common reasons for having an estate sale are downsizing, divorce, relocation or you are managing someone’s estate. If you have the time and enough help, you can conduct the estate sale yourself. Or you can hire a company that specializes in estate sales. When I helped my dad downsize before moving into assisted living in 2015, I hired a local estate sale company and had a good experience. But that is not always the case. First, we will look at what estate sale companies actually do and then I’ll give you 10 Questions to Ask BEFORE You Hire an estate sale company

What will an Estate Sale Company actually do?

Estate Sales are usually held over a weekend – Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Prior to the sale, the company will price and display items in a way to ensure you get the best possible price.

Experienced professionals know:

• The market value of items.
• What estate sale shoppers are looking for.
• How to display your items so that they are sold.

They will advertise your sale. Getting the right people in the door is key to a great sale. Companies will advertise on their website, through traditional channels like newspapers and Craig’s List, social media and through their own e-mail/mailing list. Having a large e-mail list is a good sign because these are your target customers – people who shop estate sales and want what you have to sell.

They will staff the sale, handle the money and keep detailed records of what was sold and for how much.

They will provide security during the sale. Maybe not actual police or security guards, but employees who are trained in all the tricks thieves use to shoplift or switch tags during the sale.

They will clean up after the sale.

For an extra fee, they will dispose of what did not sell. They will take what is trash to the appropriate place and donate other items to charity, providing you with a tax receipt for that donation.

They will send you a check for your percentage of the proceeds within 30 days.

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How do you find an Estate Sale Company?

Recommendations from someone is a great place to start. Your Realtor, a probate attorney or a friend can provide a recommendation. When I am looking for a “professional anything”, I always start with posting something on Facebook to see if any of my friends can recommend someone they have used.

Do a Google Search or go to a site like estatesales.net where you can type in your zip code and get a listing of companies in your area. Prioritize companies that have a website with a list of services, photos of staff, photos and listings from previous sales. Since exposure is imperative for a great estate sale, you are looking for a company that knows how to market.

Interview several on the phone and then choose 2 or 3 to interview in person.

When you meet in person, the company personnel will look over the items you have to sell and evaluate if it will be a profitable sale for both the company and you. Don’t be surprised if you show them items that you think are valuable that they say are not.

For example, my parents traveled a lot during their lives and brought home many items from overseas. One was a cuckoo clock from Germany that my father always thought would be “worth something” someday. It turns out that many people their age traveled to Europe and brought home these same type clocks. Since lots of estate sales have these for sale, they are not nearly as valuable as he thought.

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Here are 11 Questions to Ask Before You Hire An Estate Sale Company:

1. Are they a legitimate business? Do they have business cards and a tax ID#?
2. Can they provide references?
3. Are they bonded and insured?
4. How long have they been in business?
5. How do they handle sales tax, if your state requires that it be collected?
6. Do they have the right equipment like tables and display cases?
7. What percentage do they get?

There are typically no up-front costs. You will sign a contract with the company and agree that they get a certain percentage of the proceeds – 25-50%. Pricing is usually based on the part of the country you are in, the estimated value of the items and how much work it will be for the company.

Is the percentage they charge a reasonable amount for your area? Ask around, but remember, cheaper isn’t always better. You often get what you pay for in the area of expertise and services offered.

Are there extra fees for things like extra staff, clean-up after the sale and handling donations to charity?  The clean-up and handling donations to charity were services I gladly paid for. Just make sure you know what your extra costs will be upfront.

8. Do they have a contract for you to sign? If they don’t, that’s a big red flag! Always get a contract. Read it carefully and make sure the company can explain everything in it in a way that you can understand exactly what you are getting.
9. How are they staffed? Do they have employees or do they hire contract workers for the sale?
10. Are they set up to accept credit cards? You will sell more if people can pay with a credit card.
11. Do they bring in extra items to YOUR sale? This is a big no-no! They should be focused on selling YOUR items, not their own or other customers.

Other things to remember:

Know that reputable estate sale companies book several months in advance, so as soon as you see that an estate sale is in your future, start “shopping around”.

Don’t “clean up” or throw ANYTHING away before meeting with the estate sale company. You would be amazed at what people buy – cleaning supplies that are half full, doorknobs that don’t work, out of date light fixtures…Let the company try to sell everything. Anything that doesn’t sell can be disposed of later.

For an even more thorough screening, you can check with the Better Business Bureau to see if there are any complaints filed against them. While there are many legitimate companies who are NOT members of the BBB, it doesn’t hurt to check.

Before you interview a company, allow friends and family time to get all of the items out that they want. Estate sale companies price according to the profit they think they can make and after you sign the contract, will ask that nothing else be removed.

I had a number of people in our family’s circle who requested items AFTER the contract was signed. Many times they would ask my dad if they could have them and he said yes. Why wouldn’t he? It was his stuff. But you have to make sure everyone understands the terms set by the company and that they need to get these items BEFORE you sign the contract.

Don’t attend the estate sale. Many companies will not allow it. You don’t want to be there hearing comments about you or your loved one’s décor or hear people haggle over the price of something that means a lot to you. Leave it to the professionals who know what they are doing.

Not sure you want to hire an estate sale company? Check out this post:

Estate Sales | Do-It-Yourself or Hire a Company?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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In June 2015, a few months after my mom died, my dad decided that keeping their home of 36 years was getting to be too much and that was time to sell it and move into assisted living. So we hired a realtor and got ready to put the house on the market. And I started thinking about estate sales as a way to sell the items that dad couldn’t take with him and no one in the family wanted.

Here’s how the rest of the story was supposed to go in my mind.

• We would put the house on the market and have a contract at asking price within a week.
• In 30 days the house would close.
• Before the 30 days were up, we’d hire an estate sale company to sell the items Dad couldn’t take with him, clear out the house leaving it in move-in condition for the new owners and deposit a hefty check for the proceeds of the sale.

Don’t you just love fantasy? I hope so because all of the above was TRULY a fantasy.

I knew nothing about estate sales except that people had them when they downsized, divorced or someone died.

So…I got on the internet and started trying to find a local estate sale company. I called several and found that most of the local companies were booked 2 or 3 months in advance. So if I scheduled one of those and the house sold quickly, I ran the risk of having to sell everything myself before closing.

I had to consider the pros and cons of conducting the estate sale myself OR waiting to hire a company. Here are some things to consider if you are you in trying to make that decision for yourself.

Estate Sales (Tag Sales) are held when someone can no longer keep all of the “stuff” they have accumulated. It is usually held at a time in a person’s life when there has been a death, divorce or the time has come to downsize.

This is something that may seem like nothing more than a big garage sale. Why not do it yourself? That is certainly a possibility. But there are several ways that estate sales are different from garage sales.

• Garage sales are smaller and are filled with items you WANT to get rid of.
• Estate sales are much larger and involve a majority of one’s possessions. You are selling most of the items because it has become a necessity. Not because you want to.
• In an estate sale, some of the items you sell have personal and sentimental value.

So, is an estate sale something you should tackle on your own? Before taking on this task, it’s important to ask these questions:

Will I make more money if I don’t have to pay a commission to an estate sale company?

You might. Companies usually take 25-50% of the gross from estate sale proceeds. But there are other things to consider:

Pricing is important and will be a big factor in how much you will make.

Do you have a background in appraisal that will enable you to determine items of true monetary value and what people will pay for them? That Hummel collection of grandmas is worth a lot less than you think.

Are you experienced enough with estate sales to know what people who shop them are willing to purchase?

Many things that the average person thinks are valuable are typically not the most popular items at an estate sale. Why? Because items like china, crystal, silver and collectibles are sold at EVERY estate sale.  Being so widely available decreases their value.

But items like rusty hinges, half bottles of shampoo and Tupperware from the 70’s may be just what people are looking for! Seriously. This is not hyperbole! Things that you would throw in the trash are sometimes what people want.

Do you have the time?

Most estate sales are held over the weekend – Friday, Saturday, and Sunday – all day.

In planning the sale, you’ll need time (maybe a month, if you don’t have other responsibilities (like a full-time job and a family) to go through every nook and cranny of the home and decide what to keep and what will be sold.

Items will need to be priced and displayed. Do you have a number of tables, display cases and hanging racks on which to display items?

Do you know how to display items in the best way to get the best price?

Do you have enough muscle?

Do you have people who will help you carry stuff up from the basement, down from the attic and move heavy furniture and appliances?

How will you advertise?

One of the major factors in a successful estate sale is getting the right people in the door.

You can put something on Facebook and Craig’s list.

You can tell your friends and family.

But you need buyers who buy estate sale items and these may not be the same people who would respond to your marketing.

Do you have enough people to help?

In addition to help pre-sale, you need people at the sale to take money, do crowd control (not let too many people in at one time) and provide security.

Shoplifting and tag switching are common at estate sales and thieves are adept at what they do. Do you know what to look for or how to spot a thief?

Do you have a thick skin?

How will you feel after a day or so of listening to comments about you or your loved one’s taste in home décor or disputing the price of items that hold great personal value to you?

Are you able to process credit card payments?

You can make it a cash-only sale, but you will typically sell more if people can pay with a credit card.

Does your neighborhood allow estate sales?

What are the parking regulations in your community?

If someone were to get hurt on your property during the sale, will your homeowner’s policy cover that?

If your neighborhood does NOT allow estate sales, there are companies that will load up all the items and sell them off-site or at an online auction.

What will you do with items that aren’t sold?

Do you have the time, manpower, vehicle and muscle to deliver the leftovers to the dump or to a charity? Or do you know a charity that will pick these items up?

What about cleanup and preparing the house for sale, if that is your plan?

If after considering these questions, you’ve decided to hire an Estate Sale Company and NOT go the DIY route, how do you find the best one? I’ll cover that next week in 11 Things to Ask Before You Hire An Estate Sale Company.

Like this post? Think an estate sale might be in your future? Pin it!

 

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