Advice for hiring an estate sale firm?

[Rusty Heap]

Now that 80 year old Mom has moved into a full time assisted living home, it's time to sell off all her stuff in a home that I grew up in 47 years ago, so yeah she has lots of collectibles and nice stuff to sell off.

Any advice to what to avoid while interviewing Estate Sale firms? I have had one walk through with an agent, have a second one scheduled this weekend. First agent didn't impress me much as a marketing agent of Moms stuff? Plus she was wanting 40-45-50% of the sales cut. Is that the norm? Lots of extra fees for this and fees for that.

I've heard that some estate sales places cherry pick what they really want to sell, the big dollar antiques/furniture/jewelry/crystal/china then get in/out in a two day sale, while not really selling middle or lower end stuff.


This second firm seems to really market a house contents well, in staging stuff, and even listing hundred of photos of a upcoming sales contents.

Example of an upcoming sale of theirs, this seriously is almost a straight clone of my Moms house contents......nice marketing, but at what % for their cut is "fair" when yes they do all the upfront appraising, pricing, sorting, advertising, staging, sale, and follow on clean-out work?

Girlfriends Estate Sales - Seattle/Tacoma/Bellevue/Everett – Bridle Trails Estate Sale


I'm sure several of you have had both good and bad experiences, please do share.

[biosurfer1]

All the places around here are the earlier version you mention. Only interested in the cherry picked items and usually, if pressed, will group those with a bunch of crap in a lot to try and clear stuff out.

"Lot 3: Rolex watch + lot of 370 Danielle Steele books"...etc

[billybek]

My friend just went through this and had an estate sale company go through his parents home and possessions.
Even though they were well off, the agent doing the evaluation told him that he would get more joy giving away their possessions rather than selling them. The money just wasn't there to make hiring the estate sale company worthwhile.
Ymmv.

[recycled sixtie]

Went through this situation when my mother passed away 3 years ago. Much of the jewellery and antiques have surprisingly little value. My sister and I got it appraised. Gold necklace my sister kept and I kept a couple of gold rings. We came to an equitable arrangement as she decided to pass most of the valuables on to her children.

When I got appraisals for the gold rings I was surprised how little they were worth. $200 each. My father's war medals? DFC a $1000. For that amount I might as well hang on to them.

Apparently regarding antiques, antique furniture etc young people want modern stuff now.

There is an oversupply of antiques driving the value down. Beware of the lowballers if you have some good articles though....

[GH85Carrera]

My parents estate was a house full of the typical stuff. I sold the TV and a few furniture pieces and some other random bits and than called a local guy that does estate sales. He dug through every single cabinet and drawer from the storage shed, garage to the front porch. He put everything on tables and priced it all. There was no doubt he worked his butt off. Stuff I would have thrown out he sold. Thinks like a 1/2 used box of laundry soap. Some people have so little money buying 1/2 a box of soap for $1 is a bargain.

In the end all the stuff was just over $8,000. The estate guy got 40% of that. I did not have to take time off work and kill myself with work.

Without a doubt the most memorable things like the quilt my great grandmother made for her grandmother and the long letter my great grandmother wrote to her grandmother was something I could not even think about selling. I have no kids but one of my cousins has 3 kids and 6 great grand kids. My cousin cried a lot when I gave her that quilt for the family history.

My parents had tons of pictures they had inherited from their parents. I treasure the pictures of my mom's parents when they were "courting" and their honeymoon pictures.



My mother's parents when they were dating. I also have pictures of them as kids.

[bpu699]

Don't expect to make any money off the estate sale... I go to a lot of these, as stuff is always dirt cheap.

The formula the guys use in the midwest is to price nice stuff at 1/2 of retail (sofas, pictures, equipment, nice furniture, etc) for the first day. What doesn't sell, is then a further 50% off the next day. 90% of the stuff sells.

Keep in mind the unfortunate truth: Most of your belongings are worth very very little.

Furniture usually is dirt cheap, as most folks have no way to get it home. I bought a $4000 home gym set for $150 as folks didn't want to disassemble it and haul it away. $4000 leather sofa set for $500, etc...

Clothes/trinkets, are 2-3$

Nice tables, sofas, $200-300.

Pictures, 20-30$

Tools, 10-20% of retail

Anything in the kitchen... a couple bucks


Estate firms provide the service of quickly clearing out your stuff. If you want top dollar, put it on ebay or advertise it.

Most estate sales seem to require 4-5 people to roam the house, so nothing gets stolen. Over 2 ten hour days, thats 80 man hours. At $20 an hour, you are in $1600 before the firm makes a profit...

The firms around us don't advertise, other than some listings in the classifieds...

Going to estate sales is an eye opening experience, and very educational. Every time I walk through my house and garage, and look at my "treasured tools and belongings," I comment to myself that these things are near worthless once I die... Its sad to think that everything you saved for, bought, and enjoyed, will likely be sold for pennies by your children...

[GH85Carrera]

No doubt the biggest reason I did the sale was to get rid of the stuff I did not want. I had to empty the house and the knowledge that someone will find use for the stuff is better than it going to a landfill.

[5String43]

I think you have to be careful when looking at any possible source of income. Here's my experience, for what it's worth:

My father died. My mother was in an Alzheimer's facility. I was executor of the estate. It was my job to pay, using the money in the estate, the monthly fee for my mother's care. There wasn't a lot of money there. I knew, to the month, when we would run out of money. What I didn't know was what we'd do if/when that happened (it didn't - she passed, unfortunately, before the money ran out).

In any case, the estate sale brought in enough cash to cover her care for a number of months. If a stroke had not taken her, we would have needed it.

So I would think it might be wise to exploit every possible source of cash, including an estate sale. You just might need it.

(Yeah, I know that wasn't exactly the question, but I thought my experience might be worth noting. If not, sorry.)

[Rusty Heap]

excellent advice and as the OP, thanks to all.


I've been to several estate sales before, and yes it's very eerie not just looking at the stuff, but to feel the past owners life and vibe through their "stuff".


Hiring a sales agent takes the emotional part for me out of the picture. You're paying for a service, they can empty a house in several days, convience factor for family members. Boom it's gone, hire the realtor and sell the house,

SOLD, simply a long character building chapter of your life is closed, and you can move on.


thanks again all.

[LeeH]

I do resale... auctions, estate sales, thrift stores, and resell on eBay and Craigslist.

Estate sales are interesting. Some companies really research items and price at or close to the actual value of the items. Many will have prices be firm as marked on the first day, then be more flexible the next. As a reseller, I find these frustrating, but know that this type of sale will maximize the money recovered for the family. End user/collectors that show up at these sales and do buy things. People like me who resell, don't or come back on day 2 when prices are negotiable.

Sometimes all the research backfires. If an estate sale company insists on trying to price items at the true used retail price, nice stuff can be go unsold, then practically given away toward the end of the sale. I just bought a Niles 12 channel amp at sale. They had it priced at $400. That is what they are selling for on eBay, but a residential home with a cardboard sign outside is NOT the same as a nationwide audience. I left the $400 amp behind and went home. Later in the afternoon, 15 minutes before they wrapped up the sale, I returned and offered $100. SOLD! If they'd priced it at $200, me or someone else may have bought it earlier. Of course the owner isn't present and sales aren't itemized so they'll have no idea what items sold for more or less money.

[KNS]

Originally Posted by bpu699

Going to estate sales is an eye opening experience, and very educational. Every time I walk through my house and garage, and look at my "treasured tools and belongings," I comment to myself that these things are near worthless once I die... Its sad to think that everything you saved for, bought, and enjoyed, will likely be sold for pennies by your children...

Both of my in-laws passed away recently and we just went through an estate sale over the last weekend (did it ourselves). I look at all the stuff I've accumulated and think the same thing - 'nobody is going to want all this chit'.

[porsche4life]

My greatest fear is my parents dying before they've had time to pare down their junk. 30years of stuff spread out over 10 acres and 4 shop buildings. Tons of tools, tons of scrap metal, tons of stuff.

[JavaBrewer]

On a Saturday I followed some Estate sale signs to a larger home in a very good neighborhood. It was very active - probably 50-100 people going through. All the estate items for sale were left in place, clothes in closets, laundry items in the laundry, etc... This was a one day event and IMO the prices were far too high and few people I saw were actually buying anything. I left with the feeling that the company managing the sale over priced everything (example used coffee cups for $5/ea) with an agreement to pay bottom dollar for leftovers and then resell the items for a decent profit.

[Ayles]

Stuff that's trendy seems over price at our local estate sales. Records, vintage stereo equipment and mid century modern are hot sellers around where I live. Everything else is pretty much garage sale prices.

The creepiest estate sales are the ones where the house has been sealed for many years while things were settled. One near where I live was like this, it was loaded with old food and cleaning supplies that were all very old.