estate sale for household goods (how much, washer, springs, sofa)

[littlelou]

I'm not sure where to post this, so I thought I'd start here.

Basic info: both parents deceased, I'm the executrix of the estate. I live in another state from the family and family home....1 sister, B-I-L, 1 niece & spouse, 3 nephews and a spouse, all adults with homes...3 great nieces - children, are in that area. We have a 3600 house full of furniture, misc goods to do something with, after we split up what we want.

A coworker suggested an estate sale, and I thought that's the ticket....when I mentioned to my sister, she freaked, 'we'll lose money, they'll rip us off". I don't understand where she is coming from, but wanted to ask if anyone here has used an estate sale company to clean out a parents/relatives home. I guess she thought we'd call Sal. Army or Goodwill and they'd take everything...

Don't know if it's worthwhile, any help????

[Donn2390]

We did an Estate sale a couple of years ago after mother died. She too had a large home stuffed with expensive things.
We talked to a couple of local estate sale companies. They must be licensed and bonded.
First, you and siblings need to go there and go through everything if you have treasures you want.
we went throught the entire house to make sure we didn't miss anything before allowing the sales force in. It's worth your time if you are able to travel to that location, and have a few days to spare.
The sales company makes a contract with you. They bring in a crew and go through every nook and crany, and inventory every single thing. You will get a complete, written report.
They bring in long tables and stage everything. They will advertise the sale. Usually the sale starts on Thursday. That day is only open to dealers on the list, they get first choice. Then the public in invited the next few days.
The sales co has a deal with junk buyers. Anything not sold at the sale, is picked up by a contractor the next day. The contractor will walk through and look at the junk left. A lot of it is worthless, but the contract says, "you take everything or nothing" They pay a blanket price to clean out and take everything in the house. Usually not to much money...!
After the junkie hauls off everything, the company then leaves the place "Broom Clean", meaning it is empty of everything, including the yard and garage, and we swept the place. It's not spotless, it's broom clean and ready for market..
One thing we noticed at our sale, and other estate sales we've attended, they tend to overprice the items. They want to max their %, so they price high. I think a lot of things needed to be priced much lower. Better lower than not selling the stuff. Were I to do it again, I would tell them to chop the prices on some stuff. We ended up giving stuff to the junkie we might have sold for a more reasonable price.

[PennyLane2]

Originally Posted by littlelou

...when I mentioned to my sister, she freaked, 'we'll lose money, they'll rip us off"

Judging from the quote above, maybe your sister is thinking that you and your family could do the estate sale yourselves and save the money that the sales company gets.

We just did this not too long ago, and that is what we chose to do. There was only four of us to do everything (it sounds like you have a lot of littler helpers ), and it took some time, but it wasn't that bad. We went in and took what we wanted, then we let the grandkids come in and take what they wanted, and then we gathered tables (we had some, got some from the church, etc) and set everything else up for the sale.

The traffic and the amount of stuff that we sold was amazing. It was actually kind of fun when you could get past the emotional part about getting rid of your parents' stuff.

We had some furniture left over after the sale, but we ran it in the newspaper the next week, and ended up selling all the big stuff (furniture, fridge, washer/dryer, etc.). What was left we gave to local shelters, Salvation Army, Habitat for Humanity, etc.

I'd say we did better by doing it ourselves than with an estate company, but we were all in the same city, and we all had time to devote to the project. Good Luck. It can be kind of an emotionally trying time that some people don't handle too well.

[North Beach Person]

Things to remember if you auction the stuff:
1) the stuff is never worth what you think
2) dealers will be there and have a very finely honed sense of what sells and for how much. My brother ran into that when he auctioned our mother's stuff (she's still alive by the way). He had been in antique stores and saw the prices for similar items and thought that would happen at the auction.
Sample prices:
Mahogany desk: $1
Brass Bed w/ mattress and box springs: $2
Complete set Revere Ware: $6
8 Hungarian colored goblets sold in metal trash can: $10
Sleeper sofa: $5
Set of 8 pipe wrenches: $2
Garbage bag of patchwork quilts, some over 100 y/o: $5
Batch of antique saws and other wood-working tools: $2

Mom ended up after costs with $800 ($400 of that from my wife and daughter).

I had always said we would do better with a yard sale.

[the painter]

I will throw in another story of an estate sale. A freind of mind did this after her mom passed, mom was a silent film star and the friend and husband were celebrities also. They had high dollar stuff but no clue to its value so they hired a company to handle all of it. They got ripped off big time. The main lady handling the sale had her "friends" come in and for example bought a set of china for 100 bucks, it showed up the following week at their store for 6k! They clearly to advantage of these people. And this was a highly recommend sales company, what a joke.
Now when it came time to do the same in my family, my sister and I made 4x what the friends did with less valuable items but we did it ourselves.

[Briolat21]

Estate sales are sad. Really really sad. You'd be better off bringing in a reputable antiquities company to give you a value/estimate on the important items - then letting those go to a specialists auction.

I've gone to estate sales held at the house - what this really is - is a "clean out my loved one's garbage sale". You are taking the valuable things, or your siblings are, or their children are. What is left is the dented set of TV trays, the dentures (yes, they sell those), the reading eye-glasses (yep, they sell those too!).

And the people (dealers, etc..) that go to these are (as the poster above alluded to) out to maximize their own profit. So they are cut-throat and unlikely to offer even close to what a valuable item is worth.

If (for example) I was disposing of my parents household contents - I would call a specialist company to look at their actual valuable collections, then put those items up in specific appropriate auctions. Their personal items (nightgowns, walkers, canes, support shoes, cosmetics, etc..) I would dispose of or DONATE.

I would not want to have strangers pawing through my parents life, offering 50 cents for bags of my mother's clothing. I would rather save them some dignity and donate it.

[Rach1966]

I have been to several estate auctions. I have seen family members get angry and yell when things don't sell very high, or one family member try to out bid another family member over something that is being auctioned off.
have seen things that you could not get 1$ bids on and they will add extra thigns to it, just to get someone to take it, then also seen things that went way above the actual value worth.
so, it's depends on the crowd and the weather to what prices go for

[Rach1966]

one other thing

I was at an estate sale and they had all these old clothes, no one would bid on them
they had a very nice new deep freezer chest type for sale that I wanted
with no sale of the clothes, they said next up for sale if the freezer, opened up the freezer and stuffed it full of clothes, so who ever bought the freezer had to take the clothes
that is when I refused to bid on the freezer, even thought it went for a good deal