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Would you hold an estate sale yourself vs. hiring a company?

16 years ago

I posted a longer question under the organizing a home forum, but generally am wondering pros and cons of holding estate sale yourself with a savvy friend or two vs. hiring a company? (For a 3-bed home with no antiques.)

Comments (8)

toomuchglass
16 years ago
I know how much work a plain old rummage sale is ! My opinion is , if you have no antiques and a couple friends , do it yourselves. I have heard alot of bad things about those people that do it for you . More bad than good. I don't know what they charge , but for me - I'd rather be in charge than a stranger.

***On a funny note *** When DH & I decide it's time to downsize ... I told him I'm going to hold my OWN estate sale while I'm still alive ...a " You can't take it with you sale " LOL
cinnamonsworld
Original Author
16 years ago
LOL... I was trying to figure out how to phrase this and had to consciously think not to say "Should I hold my own estate sale?"

Your thinking is along the lines of mine, thanks. :)
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Thirteen years ago my mother suddenly died and I was left with a 3,000 square foot house that she had inherited from her parents. It was absolutely loaded with very fine furniture and every conceivable antique, valuables, paintings, clothing, jewelry, etc. Here's how I handled it. The local estate sale pro came and told me she would do the sale for 25% of the gross. I decided against giving up control over pricing and giving such a big "cut" to that woman. I had a cousin who is very familiar with estate sales, so I asked her to help me. It took me 7 weeks, working 10+ hours a day, 7 days a week, to organize for the sale. The cousin helped me for about 20 hours during that period, she was key because I had no idea how to price things. She had these thick books about antiques that helped us with pricing. My brother and I chose all the furniture and items we wanted to keep and we put these in bedrooms, which were off-limits to people coming into the house. We started with local used furniture and antique dealers, who were invited to come to the house to buy - that took several days. We then had a word-of-mouth estate sale every day for a week, then advertised in the local paper for another week. Finally, we had garage sale type items left and we conducted that sale on a weekend. The following week I had the movers come and pack shipments to the 2 cities where my brother and I live. I donated the remainder of the items, keeping careful records for the tax writeoff. The proceeds from the sales were $18,000, moving costs were $6,000, so we were very successful. I gave several valuable items to my helpful cousin (worth $1,000 at least and they were sentimental things that she wanted and chose) and I paid her $700 for her help. I also gave some items to my mother's friends, they chose items they wanted. I always had at least two people present during the estate sale days and we watched people like hawks. We had no theft, but we only let a few people in the house at a time and they were confined to the living and dining rooms. I had more help for the garage sale days and those were the most stressful, but by then there weren't any especially valuable items left to steal. Final thoughts would be that, if you do the sale yourself, sorting things out will take more time than you think. Unless you know how to price things, you will be at a real disadvantage. Mark every single item with a price and put signage on anything "not for sale." You can phone local used furniture stores and antique dealers to give them "first pick." Make sure you have 1-2 other people in the house to help, watch the people who come to make sure they don't switch tags or pocket small items. Good luck with your decision and the task ahead.
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"Leaving your family with a mess you have created is very thoughtless and unfair." I'm in this club, too, and based on what my family and I had to deal with after my parents died, I'm not doing this to my kids, either. Plus I just don't want to live like that, surrounded by stuff I no longer want or use. For us it was complicated by the fact that my parents lived on the opposite coast. They were more packrats than hoarders, with a nice apartment and some very nice things, most of which they never used any more. But 40 years worth of stuff in closets and drawers and cupboards adds up. It was a long and complicated affair to make arrangements to travel to clean out their place. Further complicated by the fact that it was a rental, so the landlord was breathing down our necks and not at all understanding of the time and distance constraints. And it was over the holidays and we had been away sorting out their stuff (ie hauling it away by the truckload) from their vacation home. Far far away. My husband and I are incredibly lucky we're self-employed, because we could make our own schedules (up to a point); any employer would have fired us that year. But we lost out on work/$$ and had to impose on my elderly inlaws to look after our own things while we were away so long. We took as much of the good stuff as we could in a trailer. But most of it wasn't to our taste or there wasn't room for it. Thank goodness for a Goodwill just a block away, and three willing kids (ours) to help haul stuff over there. Really, with a "garbage room" on each floor of the building, and the Goodwill on the way to the subway station not to mention a maid who would have been happy for the shoes and purses etc., my parents could have been disposing of a bag of stuff a week on the way to work for years and not been in this situation. A friend told me that before her father died in his 90s, he started giving things away. So that by the time he died, he was down to a bed, table, chair, one plate, one bowl, one fork, etc., some favorite books, the television, and so on. He transferred the deed to land he owned to his daughter. All very Thoreauvian, and very selfless. She said it took her less than a week to deal with his house and estate. Sigh... All a huge reminder for me of what NOT to do, including not waiting until the very last minute, and a good lesson for my kids, too. And though I've always been a steady declutterer (though I like my pretty things, too), I became even steadier after returning from that first trip. For what it's worth, I've never bothered with garage sales. Anything in decent shape goes to Goodwill, which is faster, easier, and benefits others...
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Thanks for getting back to me so quickly, Paula. I ordered through Lowe's online. They do not offer them in the store, so I know they came straight from the supplier. The tiles are perfectly uniform in thickness and edging. I loved them until I started moving them around. I am using the lightest touch and they are still chipping, bottom and top. They are not through-body color, so I am left with dark taupe where they have chipped. I am going to contact Olean tomorrow to see if they possibly had a recall on this lot. I am glad to hear yours have held up. Perhaps if I can get them installed without more damage, they will be ok. I am really nervous about cutting and installing them, though. Your bathroom remodel looks fantastic. Do you recall what color and brand of grout was used? Thanks again, Andrea P.S. I hope my son finds a house that doesn't need a bathroom remodel. ;-)
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bud_wi
16 years ago
You don't have to be deceased to hold an estate sale. A lot of people dispose of their household goods in order to spend their later years traveling or merely just to downsize considerably to move to another state.

I would do it myself. I have gone to estate sales and was never impressed with the professionalism of these estate sale arrangers.

I also have known people who used them and there was always> a problem with *missing items*.
jannie
16 years ago
I don't know about estate sales, but garage sales are a ton of work. All the lifting, arranging,pricing. Then you have to sit there all day and deal with hagglers and thieves. You have to have plenty of change. I did better off advertising things privately in a local newspaper. For example, I sold an Electrolux vacuum cleaner and a portable clothes washer after they were ignored during a garage sale. I would leave the sales to the professionals in the future. My 84 year old mother already has a contract to sell the contents of her house after she dies. I'm a little sad. There are some things I would like ,for sentimental reasons, photos and knick-knacks, not like I want to grab all her jewelry.
Chemocurl zn5b/6a Indiana
16 years ago
Are you thinking of holding it like a 'tag' sale as Martha always calls them. You have all the stuff priced and folks come, browse, dicker (probably) and buy? If that is the case, I'd think it would be a lot of work, and that you would end up with quite a bit of leftovers at the end of the day.

I'd suggest talking to some auction houses and see what they say. Possibly they could have the auction at the house...and they are good at advertising, and getting the word out. They want to get the best prices they can because that will determine their profit as well.

Estate sales held at the actual residence really draw the crowds in around here in Indiana....all hoping to find/get something really special.

Anything that is small and/or more special, I would however either pay attention to, or ask the auctioneer to hold aside someway to protect said items from walking off. Even if you do it yourselves, chances are there would be some things pilfered behind your back(s).

Sue...who loves a good auction on a nice fall day.
sudiepav
16 years ago
In our neck of the woods, professional sellers take a healthy cut, but if that's the only way to go, they have their place. I also know how much work sales are, having had a couple myself. But if you have friends to help, I would recommend this avenue. You need 3-4 just to monitor all the stuff, if the sale is being held all thru the house. I went to a sad one last fall. A lady was moving to assisted living and her children were holding the sale. She was present and visibly disturbed at the prices that things were going for. We all think our treasures are worth more than they really are, for the simple reason that to some people, our things are valuable because they are ours. I'd steel myself to get rid of the stuff at a fair price and then maybe donate the rest and take a tax deduction.
jannie
16 years ago
Even sadder than an estate sale is when people just throw stuff away. A few months ago, I drove past a house and saw an electric sewing machine and rocking chair in the street with the trash. I was in a hurry and didn't stop. But they looked okay.
Jonesy
16 years ago
I have had so many garage sales I would do my own. I don't have any antiques, but know how to check prices. I do have some collectible dolls and clocks, so I would check the values on those.

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