We just wanted to get something for all the stuff, don't really care how much - just figured it was better than throwing everything away. I have no illusions of getting anywhere near what I might think everything is worth. And the estate sale websites I've looked at in parents home town all say they will sell everything to the walls and leave the place broom clean. They donate or dispose of everything else. That was some of the appeal, so if that's not part of the deal that alone might make us skip an estate sale.
This is a very timely topic for me. I am planning to call an estate sale company (recommended by my realtor) tomorrow about my mom's stuff.
I honestly don't understand why anyone would throw out or donate stuff if they could sell it in a timely way with an estate sale. Something is better than nothing. That is -- pennies on the dollar are better than no pennies at all.
Now the one thing that would stop me doing it would be if it was going to cause an inordinate delay as we want to list the house for sale. So if they tell us it will be 2 months before this can happen then I won't do it.
I did spend quite a bit of time going through my mom's house and removing sentimental items that I wanted to keep. That has been done.
Most of my mom's stuff is typical garage sale stuff and I am sure would be sold as such. It is worth the estate company's fee just to have them do it.
She does have a doll collection but it is not super valuable. I could sell it on eBay if I wanted to and would clear more money. But, there would be my time and effort involved.
There are a few other things that we might sell on eBay.
But, the main draw of an estate sale is that they do the work and I am willing to pay them to do it.
However, in her case, there is no way what she had is worth $50k. It probably isn't worth a tenth of that. So it is very possible that an estate company won't want to do a sale. If so, then I probably will take the most valuable stuff and sell it on eBay. I might do a 1 day garage sale for the household stuff. Whatever sold would be something and would help clear out the house. The house is on a busy street so should get a fair amount of traffic.
If I did that then, I would probably call 1-80-got-junk to dispose of anything else that I didn't want to take to sell on Ebay.
If the estate sale company will do it, I don't see that it will require work for me. So, I will do it IF the timing works out OK. I think an auction might be good for houses that have some real valuables but hers really doesn't.
My issue is what to do with the condo which needs major upgrades to make is sellable. Carpet, Kitchen remodel. Has anyone used a "We Buy Houses" type business that buys it for lower then market value, does the fixes and then sells it?
The problem is most of the discount stuff so much that it is not worthwhile. In most cases I think you could sell it as is for more through traditional means.
My mom's house is very outdated. She never updated her kitchen in 70 years (she replaced her oven as needed -- house does not have a dishwasher). I am not doing anything on cosmetic stuff. I am only doing a couple of major functional things. I am getting a new roof and a foundation repair. I will need to replace some vinyl flooring when I do the foundation repair.
I am not going to update her kitchen or get new carpet, etc. My real estate agent feels that buyers will want to do those things themselves and it isn't worth doing. However, they will want to have a repaired foundation and a good roof. I think doing it this way I will net more money than my other options. The only negative is I have to be willing to front the money for the roof and foundation work. However, I think I will net more money doing it this way because a buyer will take off more for the repairs than what it will cost me to just do them.