Experience with Estate Sales

[rosarugosa]

As I have detailed in my ongoing posts, sister and I have given away or donated a lot of items from Mom's house. We've invited friends to come in and look around and take anything they want. We've been proactively clearing out clutter for a few years now - and there is still SO MUCH STUFF!

In the next month or so, we'll want to start getting the house ready to go on the market, so we will need to empty it pretty completely. A friend suggested an estate sale, with minimal prep and just letting people come in, offer a price for things, which we will happily accept. I've heard caveats about watching people so they don't steal things, but we wouldn't really care about this - go ahead, steal something else! lol. The main goal would be getting the house emptied without adding stuff to the waste stream unnecessarily. If we make a few hundred bucks along the way, that would be frosting on the cake.

What do you think? Does anyone have experience with anything like this, either hosting such a sale or attending one as a buyer? I've never actually been to an estate sale myself. Maybe we could set up a table and sell pottery as a sideline?

[Rogar]

My brother passed away in a town a couple of hundred mile away. The estate lawyer suggested a person who would handle and estate sale and also an auction house. The auction house was perfect. They picked up everything and fetched fair prices even after their cut. Most of the clothes went to Goodwill and there were also smaller things that got donated, but for furniture, things of value, and even yard tools and kitchen supplies, it was perfext.

[catherine]

I support the idea of calling in an expert first.

But if you decide to get rid of some things, you could do the yard sale thing. We have never had an estate sale, so to speak, but we've had yard sales, and when we were going through The Purge, it was like an estate sale. All you need are signs, and if you have a local neighborhood online newsletter, you can post the date and time.

I've been to large estate sales. The biggest one I went to, the heirs opened up the whole house so that in every room there were items for sale. There were more tables outside as well. The closets were set up so you could browse through them and buy the clothing.

You don't have to price every single item. You can take offers, and you can have $1 tables and $5 tables. Yard sales can save you from making extra trips to Goodwill. Also see if if there are trucks that pick up in your area. We used the Vietnam Vets organization a couple of times. All we had to do is leave the stuff bagged up or boxed on the porch, make an appointment, and they come and pick it up.

Make it as easy as possible on yourself and speak to professional estate sale people first. (We almost gave away for a song a very valuable Asian map chest. Thank goodness the buyer decided not to take it. We just got carried away but definitely would have had seller's remorse.)

[iris lilies]

Estate sale people charge crazy high prices because they have to be able to pay themselves. I’ve seen more than one estate sale end up leaving the house with still tons of crap.


There are also times when an estate sale will not accept a job because there just isn’t that much stuff to sell.


Rosa, I have often thought about throwing open doors of houses and just letting people come in take stuff. But how do you advertise that kind of sale? And it would glut the street with cars of people who want things for free? It could be an uncontrollable crowd.


It’s quite a dilemma, this getting rid of stuff. I guess my inclination is to call an auction house and have them come and haul away the stuff they think they can sell. Hire a dumpster and put the rest into that dumpster.

perhaps you will want to keep a few pieces of furniture strategically placed in the rooms for staging purposes, but of course don’t keep any furniture that is very beat up or smelly.

[Tybee]

When we lived in Michigan there were tons of wonderful estate sales--not so here. But what they would do is the family would get together and have the sale Friday, Saturday and maybe Sunday, end by noon. They'd open the whole house, which is easy because no one is living there, and people go from room to room and then check out in the front. Lots of people had things like their pottery or jewelry, things they made, by the up front sale table and they sold a lot that way.

I think priced sales are better because I didn't like the ones with no prices, but that might be just me.

When there were heirs in town that seemed like functional families, the family doing it was the norm. There were also professional sale companies, at least two three for that area, and sometimes they had family there helping and sometimes they didn't.

But we are talking really, really big houses, like 3000-4500 square feet, plus barns, and LOTS of stuff in the houses. The people who never got rid of anything since 1950.

But the smaller sales were great, too. I've bought woodstoves, tools, furniture, cookware, textiles, jewelry, and even a half dead orchid and aluminum foil.

I think since you have the pottery table idea and you like your sister, it could be really fun. You know if what is there is super valuable, and it sounds like those things are gone already.

[pinkytoe]

Estate sales around here price everything with 50% off on the last day (Fri-Sun). I have heard their cut is 40% but worth it if they empty it out afterwards. I would think an established realtor would have good leads on estate companies.

[happystuff]

The only experience I've had is when a friend of mine had professional auctioneers come to her dad's house. Unfortunately, it was not the best event or the best people involved. The auction company hardly did any advertising for the event and most of the people who showed up were their "regulars". A lot of the more valuable items were auctioned at the end of the day (lots of folks had left) and the auctioneer employees bought them for a pittance! And there was a ton of stuff left over.

I like the idea of advertising for an "open house yard sale". If your not worried about people stealing stuff, all the better! (although I do believe the majority of people are/will be honest. LOL)

Whatever you decide, I with you the best of luck!!!

[happystuff]

The only experience I've had is when a friend of mine had professional auctioneers come to her dad's house. Unfortunately, it was not the best event or the best people involved. The auction company hardly did any advertising for the event and most of the people who showed up were their "regulars". A lot of the more valuable items were auctioned at the end of the day (lots of folks had left) and the auctioneer employees bought them for a pittance! And there was a ton of stuff left over.

I like the idea of advertising for an "open house yard sale". If your not worried about people stealing stuff, all the better! (although I do believe the majority of people are/will be honest. LOL)

Whatever you decide, I wish you the best of luck!!!

[frugal-one]

The only experience I've had is when a friend of mine had professional auctioneers come to her dad's house. Unfortunately, it was not the best event or the best people involved. The auction company hardly did any advertising for the event and most of the people who showed up were their "regulars". A lot of the more valuable items were auctioned at the end of the day (lots of folks had left) and the auctioneer employees bought them for a pittance! And there was a ton of stuff left over.

I like the idea of advertising for an "open house yard sale". If your not worried about people stealing stuff, all the better! (although I do believe the majority of people are/will be honest. LOL)

Whatever you decide, I with you the best of luck!!!

Yeah. We did an auction and it was not good. We got rid of stuff but they were thieves.

[Rogar]

The only experience I've had is when a friend of mine had professional auctioneers come to her dad's house. Unfortunately, it was not the best event or the best people involved. The auction company hardly did any advertising for the event and most of the people who showed up were their "regulars". A lot of the more valuable items were auctioned at the end of the day (lots of folks had left) and the auctioneer employees bought them for a pittance! And there was a ton of stuff left over.

I like the idea of advertising for an "open house yard sale". If your not worried about people stealing stuff, all the better! (although I do believe the majority of people are/will be honest. LOL)

Whatever you decide, I wish you the best of luck!!!

The auction house I used was entirely online bidding and they ship out of state, although I'm sure the larger items went locally. They put up their catalog for a particular auction weeks before the bidding ends, with photos and descriptions. There were a couple of more valuable art objects, like maybe a thousand or two dollars, that they made a utube site for a visual and narrative. They would group my things with others of a similar type, like coins and jewelry, tools, antiques, or furniture, etc. The owner had some sort of certification as an antique appraiser and they were recommended by a satisfied user. Maybe I got lucky.

I am sure there are other experiences good and bad. One thing I liked is that there weren't a bunch of strangers wandering through the house. Privacy was an issue for me.