In an effort to help families who need estate sales here are some cautions
when choosing an estate sale company.
- Do not be intimidated by the company.
- Just because a company
started advertising your sale, if you don't have a signed contract you don't have to go with that company if you don't
want to.
- A company who offers the lowest commission is not necessarily the best company to conduct your
sale. They may not do a complete set up, they may not go through everything in the house and some items may not be priced
or researched. No research means they are winging the pricing of your sale. Example: recently an electrician went
to a sale and purchased $900 worth of electrical supplies for $3! Did that family really save with the "lowest"
commission?
-- Do the math...half the commission
should go to labor to set up and run the sale. The people running the sale have business expenses to cover (marketing,
insurance, supplies etc) and need to make a living. If someone is only charging 15%-20%, is your sale going to
be set up completely? Will there be enough staff on the days of the sale to handle the crowd? Will marketing of
the sale be done properly? Will they do the research needed?
- There is no such thing as
a "license" to conduct an estate sale. When you register your business they give you a "license"
to do business. It's not like a license that a plumber has to work for. It doesn't mean anything.
- Make sure you read the contract! If items will be moved from the home to another venue, what is the commission
when that happens? And what are the conditions of the sale then? Aren't you hiring a company to sell the items at
the house, afterall that is what an estate sale is?
- If a company wants to buy everything that is left in
the house after the sale is a sure sign something is fishy. Often times the prices are inflated so the item doesn't
sell and they can keep the item.
- Also if a company includes the cleanout in their commission, again the
prices are inflated so the items don't sell, then they keep them for themselves and put them in their store or into an
antique show. So really that "free" cleanout isn't free.
- Ask for
references and check those references.
- Be sneaky, before you meet the company, go to one of their sales and watch
and talk to their customers and find out what their reputation is and see how they do business.
- If a company
doesn't want to do your sale because there isn't enough in the house for it to be worth their time but they want
to purchase something....don't sell anything to them! More than likely what they want to purchase is THE
best thing in the house and they are probably going to give you pennies on the dollar. Tell them NO!
- In your best interest...don't let a realtor list your house as immediate occupancy
if you still live there or if there are items in the house. A house is not vacant if there is furniture etc in the house.
Can you really afford to donate everything in the house? Or put everything into storage? We're seeing a lot
of people getting into jams needing sales because their realtor didn't look out for their client.
- A good realtor can sell a house full or empty. We recommend the house be put
on the market a day or two before the sale.
-
An estate sale company should NOT put a picture of the house on the sale advertising. Many times the sale address is
not released yet there is a picture of the house. That just invites trouble.
- There are companies that offer a flat rate fee for doing estate sales. They make the
same amount of money if they sell 20% or 90% of the items in the house. My question is what is the incentive to sell the most
they can? Many families are finding themselves with a lot of stuff left over. And some are even owing the company money
at the end of the sale and the family still has to remove the items that didn't sell.
