The most important thing you need to understand is…….an Estate Sale is a FIRE SALE!
It is a liquidation of a house full of goods. It is a Going Out of Business Sale. People go to these sales to get bargains! If you want every penny of what everything is worth…you have to sell it yourself. That takes a lot of time. Listing, describing, photographing, making appointments and/or packing and shipping. Lots of work. Don’t have the time? Call me!
There are many reasons to have an estate sale. Death of a loved one, downsizing a loved one, divorce, relocation or in some cases just to clean out years of clutter. What type of estate sale suits you?
Here is what takes place in the two types of estate sales we offer
In house Estate Sale: 1) We come in and break out everything. Taking things out of boxes and cabinets and bring in tables in order to set everything up for display. 2) We photograph everything and upload to Estatesales.net. A huge amount of people will find out about the sale from this website. Larger items (like refrigerators, washer/dryers, vehicles & very high end furniture) will also be advertised on Facebook Garage Sale. 3) The morning of the sale, we place signs directing people to your house so we get all the locals and neighbors. 4) Have a 2 to 3 day sale and try to sell all the stuff!
Online Estate Sale: 1) We come in, photograph and describe items and put them on a website in lots. Furniture and items can be one lot. Small goods that don’t have a big value get grouped together in lots. Typically, we like to have 100-200 items in a sale. A lot tag with a number is placed on each item being offered for sale. If everything is out for us we can usually do between 35-50 items a day. If we have to break things out of boxes, it can take longer. 2) Once everything is photographed and described, we go live. The auction usually runs for 10 days to 2 weeks. People find the auction from either going to the Estatesales.net website or the Park Avenue Estate Sales Site. 3) Once the sale ends, I go online and invoice all the people, then send them texts telling when and where they can pick up their items. No one knows where your house is until the auction is over and at that point it is only the winners. 4) One afternoon (usually a Saturday or Sunday) people come and pick up the things they won.
Some of the things to consider when deciding what type of auction to have
How do you feel about having droves of people go through your house? If this is a big concern, an online estate sale minimizes traffic to one afternoon and only the people who won items. No looky loos. No nosy neighbors.
Where are you going to go for three days? Most estate sale companies do not want the homeowners there during the sale. It can be a very stressful time for the homeowner. Having a bunch of strangers in the house. Selling a loved one’s stuff. For a number of reasons, we want to focus on customers and sales. If you are still living at the home, having a place to go for three days can sometimes be a big imposition. Having an online estate sale eliminates this problem.
How important is a clean out? Are you getting the house ready for sale or perhaps already sold? Then you will need a clean out at the end of any sale. No matter how good an estate sale is, there is always stuff left over. In my experience on average anywhere from 25-50% is left over with an inhouse sale. Most of the time you have to pay someone (anywhere between $500-$1,000) to haul off the rest of the stuff. We have been seeing with online estate sale that 90-100% of the items get bid on. The couch might only fetch $10, but that’s a $100 you don’t have to pay someone to haul the couch away!
Beware of any estate sale companies that offer a clean out service: Do they have a warehouse? Do they have an antique booth? Antique Mall? Thrift store? I can’t speak for everyone, but I’ve seen companies that mark your stuff too high so they don’t sell, clean it out as if they are doing you a favor, then make 100% selling your stuff!!!
Whatever you decide, I hope you found this letter informative. If I can help you with your estate sale needs, please don’t hesitate to call or text me at 678 778 6797.