When Is An Estate Sale Not Worth The Trouble?

Unless you have "really valuable" stuff, figure pennies on the dollar. We got rid of some stuff that didn't sell by placing a "get it for free" ad on Craigslist.
 
aja8888 said:
Unless you have "really valuable" stuff, figure pennies on the dollar. We got rid of some stuff that didn't sell by placing a "get it for free" ad on Craigslist.
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Even "really valuable" stuff isn't as valuable as one would think and hope, because condition is everything.
 
Have you considered running a house sale yourselves?

After my parents moved to a 700 sq.ft. condo in the early 80s, we had a one-day house sale (basically a glorified garage sale) that we orchestrated ourselves by running an ad in the local papers. We closed off the upstairs of the house to any buyers.

They didn't have anything collectible or valuable. We were able to [-]get rid of[/-] sell, for pennies on the dollar, the large dining room set, desks, other misc furnishings, lamps, bookshelves, radios, phonographs...tools, glassware, cookware, etc. I can't recall what we made, but at least we didn't have to to haul as much stuff to a charity shop. :)

Their house was a craftsman-style home built in 1904 with all original fixtures. I can't tell you how many people wanted to buy the cut-glass and carnival glass chandeliers, etc. but we insisted that they stay with the house. This probably facilitated the relatively quick sale of the house a bit later on.

omni
 
Selling our furniture on consignment: the furniture company made us a buyout offer when they came to pick up the stuff. We decided that was good enough.
 
I sold the contents of my parents' home via an estate sale company. I believe she took 20%, and it took her about 2-3 weeks to get it all organized. Nothing of any real value - just lots of memories. Total take was roughly $6,000 for me. Kind of sad for 50+ years worth of possessions. However, having a sale also served as a way to sell the house sans a real estate agent, as we printed up HOUSE FOR SALE flyers which were on the checkout desk. It worked.


I've been to other sales this particular seller has organized and I've seen rooms clearly marked DO NOT ENTER, along with items with signs that said SOLD (even though they weren't) so that would alleviate one of your worries.

Having a deadline to get what I wanted out of the house so the seller could begin organizing was a much needed motivation for me. I really needed that incentive.


To me, it would be worth interviewing a couple of sellers, just to get their professional opinion.
 
I think an estate sale is worth doing as a means to clearing out the house, especially if you can find an agent that will dispose of any unsold items. That would be worth paying a higher fee for, I think. But, as others have mentioned, knock a zero off of your expected return from the sale. We cleared $1,400 from the sale of most of the furnishings from our parent's 3 BDRM apartment. But, the auctioneers carted everything they wanted out of the 3rd floor apartment to their facility, so I have no complaints. Note that we kept Mom's sterling sliver collections out of the sale. My sister plans to try selling the most valuable items on eBay. I plan to let her :)
 
My mom didn't have many valuable things in her house. The upright piano (new at $5K), ended up selling for $800. The Kitchen Aid stand mixer, we kept; the Henckels knives, we gave to a family friend. The oak furniture went to family, friends, and relatives.

I also rented a roll-off 18 cubic yard dumpster. I started by dumping everything not worth donating (including one old sofa) into the dumpster. A few days later, I had the charity come for the remaining furniture. They brought a moving truck, and they loaded dressers, beds, book cases, tables, and chairs that were left over.

We took several pick-up loads of kitchen and household stuff to the local church for their rummage sale.

If it's worth your time to take photos and list the more expensive stuff on Craigslist, that's the way I'd go. I could see $50K of stuff going for $5K, less commissions.

It took myself, my wife, and several friends/relatives a week to finish up my mom's house. A lot of work!
 
Which Roger said:
Even "really valuable" stuff isn't as valuable as one would think and hope, because condition is everything.
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Yes, and even 150-year old china from Europe typically isn't worth anything, nor is silver plated flatware. Pretty sad when you consider the cost. Electronics when near-new are maybe worth 20-30% of original value, if you're lucky.
 
^ And that is one of the reasons I have grown to love paying for "experiences" and not "stuff."
 
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.

From what I'm hearing, we might be better off skipping the estate sale and just

  • keep the stuff we think would be worth the trouble to sell (not furniture) on eBay or NextDoor (e.g. Murano glass, chess sets, some of the more valuable sculptures),
  • attempt to donate the rest (all the furniture & appliances),
  • and throw out whatever is left in the end.
The only things of value I'm not sure what to do with are a grandfather clock (very high quality, European, with elaborate inlays all over) that must we worth a few hundred if not more and my Dad's tools - a huge collection of medium to high quality power and hand tools.

We sold off my Dad's gun collection, got $5K for 8 rifles and shotguns from a licensed dealer.

We just tried to sell all the "fine china" we got when we married and that's been a PITA. Appears resellers offer about 10% of original price even in perfect condition, some pieces are in their original wrappers unused...

Thanks all, I am still researching similar things that have actually sold on eBay.
 
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I have a friend who does estate sales and it doesn't take him months to do. I would check out a few things you think have serious value on ebay. For the rest, have a pro do an estate sale and arrange disposal of the stuff that doesn't sell. It's worth a hefty commission IMHO.
 
Midpack, this is a tough one. If you apply the Pareto Principle, and cherry pick the most "valuable" 20% of the stuff to sell yourself, via eBay or Craigslist, you will guarantee yourself that you'll have a house left with 80% of the stuff, that nobody will want to come mess with.
Please do not ask me how I know this.

It sounds like you have reasonable expectations as far as what the stuff might net, and that minimizing hassle is more important to you than trying to extract a few extra dollars. I would totally agree with that myself.

I'd suggest shopping around the local estate sales companies, and seeing if you can find one that will take your job, and minimize the hassle, especially to your sister, and leave the place as closely as possible to "showable" for sale.

Best of luck!
 
I didn't read all of the above posts but I will pass along my experience of an estate sale of parents household items.

1. Auctioneer's commission was either 20% if auction took place in the home or 25% if it took place in a public venue. We took the public venue as it allows for a larger crowd and there were also refreshments available on site. The auctioneer cleared out the house, staged everything, and did all the advertising. We didn't have to lift a finger.

2. From the time we contacted the auctioneer to the estate sale was about two months. You have to wait for them to have time in their schedule and time to advertise a week or two prior to sale.

3. Saturday is probably the best day to schedule auction to get good turn out. Weather not too hot unless venue has A/C.

4. Crazy to hear you are not allowed at the auction. We were in attendance the entire time.

5. They sold everything except they would not auction clothes, books/magazines, or food items. They even sold old coffee cans of rusty nuts and bolts, things you would think nobody would buy, used mattresses, etc. They even sold open bottles of liquor.

6. I believe certain items might be better sold outside an estate auction. Artwork or rare coins or stamp collections would be some examples. You should limit an estate sale to typical items.

7. Auctioneer told us the typical estate sale for household items brings in about $5,000 after commission. We netted $25,000 but there was a lot of decent furniture and nice collectables much above what you see at a typical estate auction in the area we live.

8. Auctioneer came with our check the next day along with a complete accounting of items sold and price each item sold for.

9. We were extremely please with the service received and plan to use the same auctioneer for an estate sale of our household items if we go ahead with a relocation in the future. No way would I hire an auctioneer that would not allow me to be in attendence.
 
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Just throwing out another thought... take the small stuff to a pawn shop and see what you can get for them...
 
I would have a garage sale for the tools .That way it would only be in the garage and would attract a lot of men who love to buy tools . Since you know ebay I would sell the valuable small stuff that way . The clock I would list on craig's list .
When my mother passed we gave away tons to her friends in the Independent living facility .We took some small items . The rest we gave to Goodwill .The Furniture we paid to get rid of . It was not worth anything .The most valuable thing was her lift chair which was brand new . Her friend was thrilled to get it .
 
We moved DMIL into aging housing and sold off most stuff we had 6 auctions in 6 months. The auctioneers did spend a lot of time on things that had little return.

A lot of stuff DMIL thought was work a lot... wasn't worth much. People's desires change over time. Expensive to purchase furniture may not be in style and may bring little.

Fine china may not be any more. My parents and grandparents likely got a set at marriage. Now there is less formal meals and not everyone needs/want formal dishes. So selling a nice set for good money may be difficult.

Now my MIL's auctions did net a good amount, but a small amount compared to what they paid for all the stuff. The did have a pretty complete machine shop.

Looking back I would wonder if the tag sales may be better.
 
I have never held an estate sale but have gone to quite a few and haven't been impressed by too many of the estate sale companies. Some seemed clueless and priced everything way too low, like they could not be bothered to look the prices up on eBay. Others priced everything suspiciously high and nothing was selling. Of course neither type of company would want the owners on site.

I asked the high priced people what they did with items that did not sell. They had junk dealers come in and buy what was left for one price for the entire house contents. It was pretty clear that some were in cahoots with the junk dealers by marking up everything too high to sell to the estate sale shoppers then selling the junk dealers the entire household contents for $1K or so and getting a cut of the proceeds or some kind of kickback.

If you use an estate sales company I would go to some of their sales and look up a sampling of items they have priced on eBay or Craigslist to verify if their pricing is reasonable, and maybe even try to negotiate on an item or two and see how they do. Pricing way too high or too low might be a clue something is off. The thrift stores in our area use eBay as a general guide for pricing, or a starting price of about 30% of retail for items in good condition.


Specialty items like astronomy telescopes or a kayak are probably going to get a better prices on Craigslist or eBay with targeted shoppers than they are on in a generic estate sale.
 
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Our estate auction was an online auction, but pick up was at the property.
 
Midpack said:
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.
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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.


jcretire77 said:
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?
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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.
 
Kat, yes people want to pick the finishes in a house. For instance we hate carpet so even if new we rip it out before moving in. Structural fixes are another story.
 
Teacher Terry said:
Kat, yes people want to pick the finishes in a house. For instance we hate carpet so even if new we rip it out before moving in. Structural fixes are another story.
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That is what my agent said. My mom's house is not a high value house and is over 70 years old and is very small. But it is a good entry level house for people who work downtown (less than 10 minutes away) and houses usually sell very quickly. I want to make it where someone could just move in and then remodel later on.
 
Dad has several sets of china - his mother's heirloom, my parent's wedding china. I have no idea what we will ever do with that stuff......
 
davebarnes said:
https://www.thebagster.com
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That seems really expensive as compared to 1-800-Got-Junk. And, they do all the work.

As far as the china question I think there probably are places to sell it although not at high value for most. I did a little eBay research on my mom's stuff. Some of it has no value. But, she has the original Desert Rose set which tends to be more valuable than later sets. Also, the place settings are the least valuable part. She had a lot of the serving pieces which have more value. If we don't end up doing an estate sale I will probably find a way to sell this.
 
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