[MandoMan]

Originally Posted by CoachKandSportsguy

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

Well said! My first home in The Villages I bought with all the furniture, and the sellers even left behind bedding and some old towels. It was very nice furniture. When I moved to a courtyard villa, though, I left nearly all of it behind except a desk. The new owners were happy to have it. When I moved here four years ago, I left behind for my buyers a fully furnished house, with televisions, bedding, towels, lots of tools, cutlery, a thousand books and lots of bookshelves, a couple hundred DVDs. All included.

When I bought that house, it was also furnished, but the house needed extensive restoration, including removing the ceiling and roof. I just put an ad on Craig’s List for free furniture at a specific time and date. Everything was gone within an hour, including an old electric stove that went to a high school props department and an old coal stove that went to a guy living in a cabin somewhere.

Consider that if you have this large and disruptive sale, your share of sales may be only $1,000. Now consider that there are people who don’t have a bed or a dining room table or chairs who would LOVE to have yours if it were all free. Even some pots and pans and baking sheets are more than many people have. Sure, some might resell it. So what? Why not skip the aggravation? Then call some company that will take anything to come take what is left.

[OhioBuckeye]

Originally Posted by Misky1951

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.

Do you have to have a Estate Sale Company?

[Villagesgal]

I've done that myself. Make sure you have a friend in every room. You'd be amazed at what people will steal and only have one way out with the cash box there. Even with petty theft, it's still a lot cheaper than using a company. I even took my friends out to a very nice restaurant for dinner and still saved money.

[Bea&Mike]

Originally Posted by Misky1951

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.

Don’t deal with estate sale company sell on marketplace Facebook or if furniture is nice either consignment shops or almost perfect will buy furniture send pic the guy gives you price if you don’t like try negotiating it works and they pick up. If you in hurry! FYI. I sold my mom home item took 10 months make $14k

[APovi]

Originally Posted by Misky1951

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.

How old is the furniture?
Selling now or in a few months?
If our timing is right I'd be interested in the whole shebang if I can find a pre-owned home north of Lake Sumter Town Square. (No homes behind) for less than $400k

[Thomy]

Good advice.

[Papa_lecki]

Our house was turnkey - made it easier to move in faster. We replaced all the furniture by now - we gave the old stuff away one piece at a time on some facebook group of free stuff for villagers.

Estate sales don’t make money. Does the fee include getting rid of the stuff that doesnt sell?

[BettyInFL]

Originally Posted by Misky1951

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.

The estate folks really do charge a pretty reasonable rate for WHAT THEY DO! They Sort, they price, they do the advertising, they deal with the public, and they have a system. They handle everything, do all the work and hand you an empty house and a check at the end. They even take care of sales tax.

Depending on size of household, they can spend several days just PRICING items. they sort the crap that you think is super valuable, and they will put prices on items so that they will actually sell. For example, your china that means the world to you and is 'worth' thousands' of dollars, at most is only going to bring a couple hundred dollars. Think about it, if we did not dispose of china, large furniture, collectibles before we moved here, think of how many DIDN'T get rid of the stuff and don't need yours.
When my mom died, family went through stuff they wanted, then estate sale folks did the rest. Mom's best friend was there during the sale, and said it was so depressing, overhearing comments about the stuff she left behind.

[CoachKandSportsguy]

Originally Posted by Bea&Mike

Don’t deal with estate sale company sell on marketplace Facebook or if furniture is nice either consignment shops or almost perfect will buy furniture send pic the guy gives you price if you don’t like try negotiating it works and they pick up. If you in hurry! FYI. I sold my mom home item took 10 months make $14k

Some of us have that time and ability/skill. Others don't. I refuse to have an account on facebook, will never have one.
My sister in law did a small version of that, and she had the skill and the time. .
she still hated it at the end. . .

it can be a lot of work, and not everyone has the ability.

[JoyoJoy12]

Originally Posted by Maker

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 L company with red/white/blue logo. To each his own opinion.

Hello, My name is Joy. I am the owner of the "L" Estate Sale. The one that we all wear Red/White/Blue. I would love to hear from you to better understand what your 'several' bad experiences have been. Please look us up on estatesalesDOTnet and call. I would love to hear your situations and advise to correct it. Also, input that you think would be helpful. We can only right a wrong if we are given the opportunity. Thanks so much. JOY

[ThirdOfFive]

Another thing to check out are online auction houses. I haven't checked to see if there are any local or semi-local ones (there probably are) but I used one in Minnesota, in the town where we lived (25,000 or so population) and did pretty well. I had considered holding an auction at the house but with COVID at the time the turnout would have been miserable. I mainly sold my woodworking tools at the auction house: quite a few including table saws jointer, planer, sander, drill press, etc. plus quite a few hand tools. As I recall you brought your stuff to the auction house where it and all the other stuff brought in that week were put on display and people bid on it online. Did pretty well as I recall. Sold the Ranger at that auction house too.

[CarlR33]

Originally Posted by La lamy

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.

EXACTLY! We just finished a yard sale and while not bad I would never do it again. You’re going to get pennies on the dollar and what you might think is “art priceless” is worth nothing.

[Skunky1]

Beware of people coming to your sale with bags or more clothes than the weather dictates!

[BarbDame]

Bargains and Treasures in Oxford will consign furniture. You get 60%, they get 40%. They will send a truck out to The Villages on Tues and Thurs and inspect your furniture and if they accept it to sell, will take it to the store for you. If it doesn’t sell in 90 days, you either pick it up or they donate to charity.

[jnieman]

It depends on how much valuable stuff you have. They know how to price your valuables and get the most for them. It’s a lot of very hard work doing a sale. If the stuff is mostly nickel and dime stuff then it wouldn’t be worth it.