Establishing an estate sale is no laughing matter. There are many things to consider and even more to do. Depending on the size of the estate and the number of things inside, it may be the largest sales event that you’ll ever organize in your lifetime.
Going into it without a clear idea of what to do and why will drastically increase the amount of labor and that you’ll need to invest. Not to mention a potential loss of profit.
There are several things that should be done before getting started.
It’s An Opportunity For A Fresh Start
There are several reasons to host an estate sale and most of them are unpleasant. The most common reasons that an estate sale is created are the death of a family member and divorce. In both of these instances, all parties involved will be dealing with psychological trauma while the sale is planned and implemented. This can be exasperated by feuding family members or recently separated spouses.
But that doesn’t mean it needs to be a blight on your life. In fact, it’s an opportunity to start fresh and let go of old and painful memories that have been holding you back. In the event of the passing of family, the estate sale serves to clean away old stagnation and the process tends to help people come to terms with what has occurred in a healthy and constructive way.
So try to not look at the negatives and embrace this opportunity for change. If you keep moving, you won’t regret it and soon you’ll reach great new things on the horizon.
Hire An Estate Sale Company
With inventory, pricing, staffing, accounting, and so many other tasks to accomplish, you might consider hiring a company that specializes in handling estate sales. There are lots of advantages to this route and only one disadvantage, expense. But even the expense is an illusion as you’ll probably turn a better profit with their help because of their ability to properly track, price, and promote the sale.
Estate sales companies really simplify an otherwise complicated process. One customer review at www.truelegacyhomes.com says that the company cleared the house, ran an estate sale, and had it on the market in less than two weeks. Indeed, hiring the services of a good company is the most convenient option with the highest chance of maximizing the proceeds from the estate.
An estate company offers many benefits compared to the DIY route. The only thing you’ll need to do is find the things that you want to keep and turn over the keys. Here is are a few things that a sales company will do to ease your burdens in such a difficult time:
- Inventory tracking and management
- Pricing without bias or nostalgia affecting sales
- Staffing needs
- Transport, loading, and shipping for large items
- Insulate the owner from scammers and opportunists
- Alleviate many familial issues and disputes
- Saves lots of time
- Increased profits
- Better customer turnout
- And they provide the owner with an opportunity to deal with the events that led to the estate sale in the first place
Document Everything That’s For Sale
If you’re going to go at it alone, the first thing to do is to get an idea of what’s inside. You’ll also want to rummage around the house and your memories for the most important items that you’ll want to keep around. If you’re dealing with the passing of a family member, there may be many things from your childhood that you want to keep. Make sure you take the time to fully document everything in the house.
Regardless of whether or not it’s a separation or a passing, there’s a good chance that someone will try to take things that don’t belong to them. Proper documenting all the items in the house upon acquisition of the property is the first thing you can do to track and notice if anything turns up missing and it provides a form of evidence if it comes to that.
Staff The Sale Appropriately And Open Shop
After doing a thorough inventory, applying prices, and advertising your estate sale, you’ll want to hire some helpers to assist you. Be sure to get more than a few workers if your estate is large. If you have many customers, you need a lot of help to answer questions, package items, load furniture and survey the crowds for theft.
After you’ve got a team in place and price stickers on your items, you can finally open the house and help those old items find new life in a different environment.