estate sales experience as seller

[thatguy]

My mom is moving into a condo closer to my sister and me. Downsizing from the house she (and my dad who passed in 2018) have been in since 1960.

We really dont have any 'antiques' BUT do have a LOT misc stuff (tools, electrical wiring, pounds of nails, nuts, screws, and bolts, handyman type stuff) that is too good to be trashed. There are some older '40s'50's hand tools from my grandfather. Then we have stuff like mason jars, and other stuff some ppl would actually want.


A friend told us about how is grandmother had an auction company come in, organize and then sold what he considered to be ' trashworthy junk' and made over $10,000


Looking around it seems most companies prefer to to an online instead of real time auction with auctioneer.

Anyone have experience with clearing out an estate with an online or real time auctions? Good bad.. What percentage should we expect to pay from the profits to the auction company

Brian

 

[drssg]

We used a real time auction place for my dad’s house, and I’d say the experience was good. My sister learned about the company, and I don’t remember their percentage.

They came into the house and packed everything up and categorized it. So it was a clean up service as well as an auction service. My sister lived right next door, and I’m a few hours away. I would have found it difficult to watch the packing and selling.

I loaded up my pickup truck and horse trailer with the things that had the most practical and sentimental value to me. At some point, I just have to stop and let the rest go.

 

[tomplum]

I don't have recent experience in an estate sale. When my mom died many years back we sold her stuff (and a bunch of our's) in an auction that went really well.

I did visit recently with a couple of my customers- one of which does estate sales. He was saying that things over the years had changed to the degree that the majority of the household stuff goes really cheap whether it should or not. The diamond in the rough was certain collectibles which online can do surprisingly well depending on the target audience. Another customer had her sister die suddenly. She had a hobby farm through the house was nice and modern. When she inquired to 2 different companies regarding sales- one wanted to charge her to do the sale with net nothing to her. The other would do it for free. Hopefully in your area you can do better.

 

[Tractor Seabee]

I would use a company that charges a fixed percentage of sales as their charge; or one who gives you a lump sum up front and they absorb any loses. That increases their incentive to get as much as the traffic will bear. People going to estate sales are the same ones that go to garage sales. Expect returns to reflect that bargain buyer mentality.

A reputable auction company will advise you on the ins and outs of using their service, they do on site sales or pack up and put into their routine sales. Auction Company by close here; I go to their monthly auction often. They always have a lot of estate liquidation type stuff. They have a separate space they use for antiques, jewelry, and collectibles. It is small so keeps the bargain hunters and lookers down. I have seen that stuff sell for way more that I would have thought. Prices vary every month depending on peoples whims. This month they were having a hard time getting prices up but last month every thing was selling sky high, much over the price of the items new. Maybe it is the moon phases. They charge the seller 30% and the buyer 10% for their in house sales. No idea if on site is different.

LOL, Ron

 

[skipperbrown]

I had a tax client who ran one of these businesses and I had him handle my mom's estate. Basically, they come in and inventory/price everything and split the garbage from what they think will sell. If there are large items, too large to ship, they will have an onsite sale or auction. For everything else, they do an online sale/auction, your choice. The fees are high, about 30-40%, but they can get rid of a lot of stuff. It takes a while to inventory everything and have a sale, like weeks. Our experience was good, but I knew the guy before I hired him. The downside was that there was a lot of rather expensive furniture pieces he couldn't move and we were stuck with them. Another route is to get a flea market type in and let them bid on the entire thing. They will buy everything and remove everything. Then they throw out the junk and consolidate the rest into lots and try to sell the lots. This is faster but yields less money. The problem is that while you have a lot of stuff that is valuable to somebody, there is no efficient way to find them! I can remember looking at the check I got at the end and thinking, '****, is this all mom's life collections is worth?" I will venture that most folks will be better off calling in the relatives to take what they want and then bringing in a dumpster for the rest or having a garage sale yourself and what doesn't sale goes to the dump. In today's throwaway world, people don't seem to want used stuff. Good luck.

 

[shooterdon]

The area matters a lot. A friend of mine could not get anyone to auction off her things when she moved to an apartment and she had some very nice furniture and household items. Much of it went to charity...one item was an $8000 oak dining room set.

 

[nyone]

Theres a local auction house that does this here. They do all types of government and private house auctions also. I have bought things from them. I was charged a 15* buyers premium but idk if they charge the seller too.

My local one also does building material auctions. Nice new stuff for 50-75* retail after buyers premium.