Estate Sales
 

Has anyone managed their own estate sale? I need to sell all my furniture, kitchen stuff, everything. But estate sale companies really charge a lot.

I'm wondering if I can do it myself.

If you have to ask, you probably cannot do it yourself.

Of course, you can. Being highly organized and getting someone to help you are key. Lots of info online about how to do it.

how manage estate sale - Google Search

For sure you can do it. Getting the word out is the biggest factor in your success. Copy what the pros do.

I go to a lot of estate sales. The biggest problem is pricing. Owners will always value their junk well above what people will pay. Be reasonable and it will move. Think of your price, then cut that price in half.

There are some professional sales we skip because the pros price too high.

There are second hand store owners that will haul away what doesn't sell, but will bot pay for anything.

Don't forget second hand furniture stores for large items.

You can - question is do have the time, ability, manpower and skills to do so. I shop numerous sales each week, the biggest issue is price. Your used stuff is not worth to others what you think it is. Price is also not based on what you "paid for it". I actually have learned which estate sale companies in the area to avoid since they are so overpriced. Keep that in mind.

Everything needs to be cleaned, organized, priced, moved so the stampede of people can see your items. That's after you post hundreds of pictures online so people can see if they want to wait in line opening day or come on day 3 for the discount, if anything good is left.

Get realistic about how much money you will make if you do it yourself, talk to 3 estate agencies and see what they say. If you can find a business that will come in and take everything and give you a price that may work. Also look online and see what types of items many thrift stores and charities do NOT accept. Large entertainment centers, dining room hutches, used mattresses are all hard to get rid of.

Unless you have antiques your stuff is just used stuff to others - don't be emotionally attached.

The fact you think the estate businesses charge a lot tells me you're not realistic on knowing pricing and the work involved. Maybe you can go to a few sales and see how they are run, check out pricing and make an informed decision.

You can. It is a big garage sale.

I don't see why not. Sort of like a garage sale on steroids, maybe have a couple of friends help you with it.

I'm wondering about the bigger stuff though: appliances, larger furniture items and the like. Getting them out the door should be your responsibility: I don't think I'd want some bozo with a dolly and little or no knowledge of how to use one banging walls and marring floors.

Good advice so far: I'd certainly attend a couple and see how the pros do it. Also online how-tos could prove helpful. Even though this is The Villages you can assume that not everyone who attends will be 100% honest and the pros seem to have ways of minimizing loss from things walking out and not being paid for.

Good luck!

Help Needed
 

Just make sure you have several people to help the days you sell. You also need to advertise and before everything else you need to do an inventory and decide what to charge. It will take some organizing but yes you can do it.

The goal of an estate sale isn’t to make money; it’s to sell it. You may not be the right one for the job if what you care about is the money you make.

If you have a lot of friends you can get them to purge their goods with yours and have a large yard sale. That’s what we used to do and it was lots of fun!

If you are selling the house as well, just advertise a fully furnished price, or about $5,000 more for a fully furnished house. . . the buyer might take it. Friends of ours bought a house with all the previous owner's stuff. They kept quite abit, and junked, straight to the recycle center all the worthless stuff. .

easiest way is to just get three quotes for taking everything. But before you do, create an inventory of the large, big stuff, with approximate age, and condition. Search for online prices, and price out the sales price of what you have. .

Then divide by 3, and assume that is about what you will get from the company to take everything away. . any price greater than that is probably a good deal. . a house which cost $20,000 to furnish today, is probably worth about $5,000 today at 20 years old at retail prices.

1/3 of that to have it taken away for someone else to sell. . They have to store and transport it to sell, and there is time to get it all sold. . . time is money and they want to make some profit.

good luck

as an example, at coachk's parent's BARN sale, there were two yard sales, and the good stuff sold. The third yard sale was free, and a couple of items were taken. . the remainder completely filled rented dumpster on site. . total take was about $3,000

One place you should list your sale online is
estatesales DOT net

If you desire to eventually hire someone, there are many great companies you will find listing there. Beware there usually is a several weeks long lead time to prep and organize the sale.
However, I will not go to one of them because of multiple bad experiences. It's the {reference removed}. To each his own opinion.

Update:
The owner of the estate sales company I will no longer visit reached out to me to ask what were the issues, and offered to try to make things better for the future. So because of their effort, I have decided to edit out their name.

I've had one garage sale in my life and said NEVER AGAIN. I would suggest you ask yourself if you NEED money from all that old stuff. If you don't, I highly recommend you donate it to a non profit organization that will come and get it, and maybe give you a tax credit for it.

$5000 for a whole house of furniture? I offered $40,000 less for a fully furnished house because they didn’t want to take the furniture, they countered with $30,000 less. Depending on the furniture, condition, and what the make is, a used couch could be worth thousands alone.

Estate sales take a huge profit, just like eBay does. The problem with estate sales is exactly what people are stating here: you put on a realistic price for what a piece of furniture is worth, say 1/3rd of what it cost you, then the estate sales people take a big chunk out of that small sale price. Same goes for sites like eBay using PayPal.
Put all your stuff online like on this website, Facebook marketplace, and you might be surprised how many people might be interested in it

estate sale
 

We did my mom's estate sale. It takes some work, just think of it as large yard sale. Some stuff we didn't price, just let people offer. Arrange to have whatever is leftover to be picked up by one of the thrift stores, they have large trucks and will take leftover pictures, dishes, furniture, etc. Good luck.

all depends upon the individual situation, location, age, condition, buyer and seller. Could be a parent's house. . . could be sold, don't know specifics,

I don't know where the poster's house junk is located and the house is worth. ..
that's why a lot of relative percentages if you look at my figures. . . . and the relative pricing of the house. . .

Likewise, i would also have a price for completely take away so that if the buyer doesn't want the junk, then no negotiations needed. .

optionality is your friend