Estate sales are events approximately 1-4 days in length in which the furnishings and items of an entire home can be purchased by the general public. Generally, estate sales are held in the home that contains the items to be sold due to cost effectiveness and convenience. People hold estate sales for a variety of reasons, such as to liquidate all or part of a person’s estate or family’s inheritance after a death, divorce, or foreclosure as well as to downsize a household prior to moving into another home or make room for renovations and new furnishings. Eleven tips for preparing a home for and executing a successful estate sale include:
- Remove any items from the home that you do not want to be sold or mark them with “Not for Sale” to ensure they will not be sold.
- Make sure all items are easily reachable and can be easily inspected by potential buyers. This may include taking items out of closets or cabinets.
- Organize the remaining items into basic categories by area of the house. For example, display kitchen dishes and utensils on the kitchen table and counters.
- Fix any broken items in order to increase the value of the items.
- For the process of pricing items, you can use information from other estate sales, catalogues, and antique dealers to gauge how you can maximize profit while ensuring your items be sold. You could also hire an appraiser who specializes in estate sales to complete this task for you.
- Make a list of all items that are to be sold including their prices as well as any flexible prices if a potential buyer wants to buy more than one item or “make a deal”.
- Advertise your estate sale online, in the local and city newspapers, and with estate sale signs. Many sellers use balloons filled with helium or to make the home easier to spot as well.
- Consider placing expensive, highly portable items like silver, jewelry, china, etc., near the person/people handling the transactions so they can keep a watchful eye on these items.
- Plan your estate sale over a weekend, which is generally when buyers have free time to shop.
- Generally, prices are slashed by 25% or more on the last day(s) of an estate sale in order to move the remaining items.
- Many people donate any remaining items from their estate sale for tax purposes. You could also consider bringing the remaining items to a consignment store.
Oftentimes, managing your own estate sale can be a complicated, messy, and sometimes even an emotional process. Many people prefer to hire a company to run their estate sale such as our company, Heritage Estate Sales, to help them appraise the items they want to sell, fix any items that need to be repaired, organize the items and stage the home for the sale, and manage the estate sale itself including any online sales. We are highly skilled and organized estate sale experts that will treat your home, belongings, and you with dignity and professionalism. We would love to schedule a free consultation with you to see how we can help you with your estate sale.