[Raen Dear]

We live in Albany, NY and are getting the house ready to sell. Almost done. . .whew! We are planning to have an estate sale to get rid of practically everything in the house; we are only bringing personal items and such with us.

Anyone have any caveats with respect to estate sales. We are meeting with a woman who has experience and good references but are there things we should watch out for?

You guys are all so helpful. This is a great site.

[Happinow]

Is this going to be an auction??

[Bogie Shooter]

Originally Posted by Raen Dear

We live in Albany, NY and are getting the house ready to sell. Almost done. . .whew! We are planning to have an estate sale to get rid of practically everything in the house; we are only bringing personal items and such with us.

Anyone have any caveats with respect to estate sales. We are meeting with a woman who has experience and good references but are there things we should watch out for?

You guys are all so helpful. This is a great site.

I would talk to some of her former clients. One thing to ask is how much was leftover at the end of the sale and what happened to those items.
An estate sale manager were I formerly lived would price items (especially antiques) so high that they would not sell. She in turn would offer the owner much lower prices and then put the items in her own antique shop.
Are you going to sort thru the items in preparation of her coming in pricing and then selling? If so do you remember all the items that may have significant value, if not those items may never appear in the sale.
Hiring an estate sale manager is one of trust between you and her. You will feel better about her after talking to her former clients.
One of the failings of an estate sale versus and auction is the items are sold for what one person feels they are worth. At an auction many more people (bidders) will be establishing the selling price. At an auction some things sell for more that anticipated and some less. The benefit is you get the best price that day and at the end of the day all items will be gone.
Good luck with the sale of your house.

[bike42]

We chose the person who did our estate sale through her excellent references (no funny business as Bogie Shooter described). Make sure your seller has enough staff to control the flow of traffic through your house. Ours gave out numbers and would only let a certain number of people in at one time. The waiting line went down the street and around the corner (that's good advertising -- check on the plan for that , too).

I put the things I wanted to keep in a couple of locked rooms and then left everything to her. I thought she would just sell the furniture and nicer stuff like china, but people descended like a plague of locusts and bought everything, including clothes, measuring spoons, cleaning supplies and pots from the back yard. We made a bundle.

The few pieces that were left over either got donated or came with us to TV. I found the whole experience tremendously liberating! So much STUFF that had been accumulated over the years GONE -- and I haven't missed a thing.

[ladydoc]

Originally Posted by Raen Dear

We live in Albany, NY and are getting the house ready to sell. Almost done. . .whew! We are planning to have an estate sale to get rid of practically everything in the house; we are only bringing personal items and such with us.

Anyone have any caveats with respect to estate sales. We are meeting with a woman who has experience and good references but are there things we should watch out for?

You guys are all so helpful. This is a great site.

For one thing, ask her what she will price certain things at. My cousin interviewed several this way and only a few knew the worth of things like Lladro statues. She was doing her deceased father's estate sale. Also, review what the pricing is BEFORE the sale. We are convinced that the one she hired put ridiculously low prices on some furniture pieces and then had her friends come over first thing and buy them up.