How to sell house of furniture in Dallas...without a house? (University Park: for sale, to rent) - Texas (TX) - City-Data Forum

Joannewebx · 11-11-2009, 07:37 AM

We recently moved to Dallas from a large 6-bedroom home in the Midwest. It included a huge attic and basement full of items (I'm an interior designer.) We had the movers put everything in their storage as we decided to rent a furnished apt. in Dallas while searching for a townhome. We're getting close to making an offer on a townhome, but what keeps me up at night is how to sell our huge amount of furniture/accessories as we will be drastically downsizing. We do not have access to the storage locker as it is in a huge warehouse without in/out accessibility. We have 2 full moving vans worth of furniture (one van did include a car) and I keep picturing them pulling up to this small townhome and not even physically being able to fit all the extra things we don't want in the garage. The only thing I could think of was renting a large UHaul to have parked right near the vans and try to deflect at least the furniture we don't want directly into it. Most of the accessories, etc. are packed in boxes which need to be gone through, though. We also had a garage filled with lawn mower, and all sorts of lawn stuff which we won't be needing. We could take then take the UHaul items and put them into a public storage-type locker, but then what? I checked with some consignment stores, and I don't think they want a huge Uhaul worth of stuff they haven't seen coming into their stores, and I don't think one store could fit all this anyway. We're thinking of buying in the State/Thomas area where it doesn't appear a series of garage sales would be a popular idea, but am not sure. I've sold items on Craigs List before and had great luck, but this is way too much stuff. I feel I almost need to rent a storefront for a month or so and really try to stage it so it is high-end enterprise and try to sell everything. Anybody have any other ideas? Thanks in advance!

TXNGL · 11-11-2009, 08:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Joannewebx

We recently moved to Dallas from a large 6-bedroom home in the Midwest. It included a huge attic and basement full of items (I'm an interior designer.) We had the movers put everything in their storage as we decided to rent a furnished apt. in Dallas while searching for a townhome. We're getting close to making an offer on a townhome, but what keeps me up at night is how to sell our huge amount of furniture/accessories as we will be drastically downsizing. We do not have access to the storage locker as it is in a huge warehouse without in/out accessibility. We have 2 full moving vans worth of furniture (one van did include a car) and I keep picturing them pulling up to this small townhome and not even physically being able to fit all the extra things we don't want in the garage. The only thing I could think of was renting a large UHaul to have parked right near the vans and try to deflect at least the furniture we don't want directly into it. Most of the accessories, etc. are packed in boxes which need to be gone through, though. We also had a garage filled with lawn mower, and all sorts of lawn stuff which we won't be needing. We could take then take the UHaul items and put them into a public storage-type locker, but then what? I checked with some consignment stores, and I don't think they want a huge Uhaul worth of stuff they haven't seen coming into their stores, and I don't think one store could fit all this anyway. We're thinking of buying in the State/Thomas area where it doesn't appear a series of garage sales would be a popular idea, but am not sure. I've sold items on Craigs List before and had great luck, but this is way too much stuff. I feel I almost need to rent a storefront for a month or so and really try to stage it so it is high-end enterprise and try to sell everything. Anybody have any other ideas? Thanks in advance!

Just brainstorming here, but have you tried to contact any estate sale companies? I've noticed with a few of them that sometimes some things they sell at their sales don't come from the home where they are holding the sale. Not sure how I feel about that, I call them "Fake Estate Sales"

, but that may be a way to go.

TXNGL · 11-11-2009, 08:17 AM

Sent you a DM

TurtleCreek80 · 11-11-2009, 09:06 AM

There are also furniture consignment stores in Dallas. They'll pick up your stuff, sell it at their store, and write you a check for 35-50% of the sales price.

If you have nice things, I'd look for a consignment store near Highland Park/ University Park/ Preston Hollow.

momof2dfw · 11-11-2009, 09:31 AM

I was thinking of the estate sales professionals myself. They KNOW the market and what it can get and from those that have recently had one they get the most for EVERYTHING. Stuff they thought might get a few dollars the estate sales person got $100 or more. I'd try that route first. Contact some and ask them how to go about selling all of the furniture and accessories without actually having the "home" for them to be staged. They might have a warehouse that can be used for it.

I doubt that some of the furniture consignment stores would be willing to accept more inventory than they have in stock in one shipment.

tbone9900tx · 11-11-2009, 10:28 AM

When will this be happening? I just bought a house that will be ready in Jan..and will need stuff.....

Joannewebx · 11-11-2009, 05:32 PM

Momof2dfw, if you know any names of estate sale companies that are good, can you send them to me in a DM? I think the estate sale route is a good idea (adding my items to someone else's estate sale that may not have enough items of their own). TXNgl also gave me the name of one...

tbone9900tx: We'll probably be moving in a month or 2. Just have nowhere to put the stuff for people to even look at it.

I've checked out lots of furn. consignment stores, too and did find a couple good ones...
Thank you everybody for your helpful responses!

loves2read · 11-12-2009, 10:21 AM

you are still going to need to sort through the stuff and it sounds like you had no prioritized plan when they packed--
like all the pieces with blue tape go in one shipping container if those were your absolute necessary items that you knew you would be having in your new address
and other lesser-desireable pieces into another and the stuff in the attic from your design business in a third...
if your storage site is in this area why can't you separate out what you are keeping vs selling now -- at least for what you know you won't move into new home--into separate PODS--
I know they would charge for it but you are going to have to pay at some point for extra shipping/storage

maing the separation early would give you a chance to photograph what you are selling or maybe have someone from the estate sales company you would use there at the time...
surely you would get some peace of mind if you did not wait until moving day to deal with this issue--

compSciGuy · 11-12-2009, 10:52 AM

What kind of lawn stuff do you have? Pics? Prices?

surf2wake · 11-12-2009, 11:02 AM

I would take pictures of all your items, and them have them moved to a storage facility... I think the money you could make by selling the stuff would outweigh the cost of the storage here locally. Then figure out how to sell it all. The options people list above are good ones for sure.

I am interested to see what you have for sale furniture wise... I am in the market for some things.