Nope. Each situation is different.
NO TWO ESTATE SALES ARE ALIKE.
Just this week we had a client call us whose mother had recently passed and she asked us to help her hold an estate sale. She was out of state and so she needed to handle everything long distance.
We talked to her over the phone and found out the house was 3,000 square feet in an affluent neighborhood and it was the family home for 40 years, so of course, this was going to be a very profitable estate sale for the client, right?
Wrong. As we said in the beginning each situation is different.
When we walked through the house and inspected the contents we discovered her mom had been quite frugal and had not accumulated much over the years. And what she had purchased was well-used and very practical. They had not been collectors nor antique lovers either, so the value of the items they did have was pretty negligible.
So, despite the large home and plenty of furnishings none of it had much resale value. Likewise, it appeared the family had taken any jewelry or other similar items of value. What was left would not have brought more than a thousand dollars in total revenue and still would have taken more than 2 days to properly set up. A full estate sale would not have made sense as it couldn’t even meet our minimum and she would end up disappointed.
But we couldn’t have known that from the woman’s description of the estate on the phone as there were many items in the house that (at least to her) were salable and warranted an estate sale.
It was one of those situations where we had to be honest and tell her the truth rather than let her get her hopes up. She had hopes of making thousands (like she said her friend recently had) but we knew from the household contents she would be disappointed and still need to spend more after the sale to finish settling the estate.
In cases like this, the fastest, most effective and most economical solution for the family is to either have us do a full clean out and haul away the contents or prepare and arrange for a large donation project for a local charity.
When we let her know the truth she sounded a little disappointed, but she also knew we were not trying to pull the wool over her eyes. A few days later she called us back and asked us to do the full clean-out. In the end she was happy, her house can now be fixed up and sold and she doesn’t have the added stress of having had an unsuccessful estate sale.
YOU CAN’T JUDGE THE SUCCESS OF AN ESTATE SALE BY THE SIZE OF THE HOUSE.
Then we have an opposite situation that happened recently. This one was from a woman who needed to move from the home she’d been living into her mother’s home and left her in the will. The house was only about 1000 square feet and in a typical middle-income neighborhood, a decent home but nothing special and pretty small.
From the description alone you might not think it would warrant an estate sale. That’s why we always do an in-home consultation. In this instance, we went to the home and it was still hard to tell because she’d not yet moved all her own belongings out.
We let her know that based on what we saw a full clean-out may be her best option rather than an estate sale, but we would come back after her things were fully moved and take a second look.
After looking at the home again and discovering there would be a good amount of estate jewelry included plus additional contents from two homes she had inherited in the last three years, we decided an Estate Sale could be successful after all.
The result was a profitable estate sale and another happy homeowner.
TWO DIFFERENT ESTATES. ONE COMMON OUTCOME – HAPPY CLIENTS.
Two very different homes and situations. Two very different options for two entirely different clients. One common outcome – is happy, satisfied clients with settled estates and empty homes ready to move onto the next stage in their lives.
You can’t judge a book by its cover and you can’t judge an estate sale by the size of the house or what it looks like.
YOUR BEST OPTION IS TO CALL AN ESTATE SALES PROFESSIONAL.
So, how do you know what your best option is? The truth is you don’t, at least not until you call a professional estate sales company, like us, who will come into the home and do a real consultation.
We will be able to properly estimate whether selling your estate contents will be truly profitable or whether it would be better to pay for a clean out and haul away or get help preparing the contents for donation.
Either way the best first step is to call a reputable estate sale company before you try to decide what to do with the contents and whether or not an estate sale is what you need.
