We’ve done it! FIL has agreed to move to an independent living facility with MIL in the attached SNF. I am in charge of the estate sale, I would actually like to have one as soon as two weeks if I can.
Whose done this before & what advice can you offer? This will be in Southern California.
Granted this was over ten years ago, but when my mom had one in Houston, they worked with a professional that organizes estate sales. Yes, she got a commission of what was sold, but it took a LOT of the responsibility off of my mom’s and brothers’ backs. She knew how to advertise it, how to price stuff, arrange stuff, what to do with the leftovers, etc.
In Houston, to call something an estate sale, you had to actually pull a permit from the city… I’m sure it’s different in different localities, but if you’re going to call it an estate sale in your advertising, you’ll want to check the legal ramifications of doing so.
we hired a company, got percent of sales rather than paid by the hour.
Technically it is not an estate sale (they are still with you). 
But we know what you mean.
I had a less than comfortable experience with an estate sale in Aug at my Dads home - lots of things were sold that I assumed were part of the house (lighting? kitchen island?) so that I have to find replacements to actually try to sell his house. Frankly it felt like I gave the keys to strangers to go rob the house. Tag anything you do not want sold carefully. We were also stupid in not thinking ahead - yes we needed that ladder to clean the roof…but it was sold. Needed the shopvac to clean that basement but yep, gone.
^^^Very good points. Get the house entirely ready before selling the stuff you’ll need to get the house entirely ready.
If you are selling everything rather than just a garage full I would hire a company because of the sheer volume. It takes quite a few people to successfully handle a sale.
Go through everything and remove from the house anything you want to keep.If an item is too large and you want it, clearly mark it Not For Sale. Go through the house after it is set up with the company and make sure you don’t have something for sale that you really want. Don’t sell that ladder or the garbage cans or the cleaning supplies! Remember you need to come back afterward–might need that lamp and the light bulbs!
You need bodies at an esyaye sale to avoid theft, so a company is a great way to go when selling it all.
Mark the appliances, light fixtures etc as “part of the house” and off limits. Keep basic garage stuff as gouf says. The home buyer will appreciate it if you leave it in the garage too.
Make sure you agree what happens to what is left after. Who disposes or donates: them or you? This can cost a bit to get rid of the leftovers!
Wow! Lighting and kitchen island sold? Did the estate sale company have any response to you on that?
Friends here contracted with someone to do the sale. First the estate person came and took a lot of their antique furniture which he sold on consignment. They got a percentage. The estate sale company had an “estate sale” for the remaining items, they set it up, and were there to staff the sale.The profits from that were split 50/50. What was left got donated to local charities, and the like.
These folks are both still alive and well. Around here if someone posts “estate sale” the implication is it is nicer stuff than a regular tag sale…which sometimes is true, and sometimes isn’t.
Their goal was to empty their house of the things they did not want as they were moving.
The big key is that an estate professional can help you set realistic prices for items…and move them.
We did the same thing when my maid of honor died. Her executor, a friend, did it a little differently. She actually sold everything left in the house for a fixed price…which seemed fair enough. Before she contracted, she did take a few things out herself and take them to a consignment store. She also made sure that all items going to friends were given.
BUT we spent days going through every single thing in that house…every single thing. With the elderly, this is often a necessity. There were papers everywhere…boxes of stuff, etc. we found things like bonds inside odd places. We found envelopes of money. We made 100 trips to the landfill. After that, the last thing we wanted to do was manage any kind of sale. It took us a long time to get ready to get to the point where a sale could even be considered. We wanted to make sure we weren’t selling the family fortune stuffed at the back of a dresser drawer (and yes, we found an envelope taped to the back of a drawer with $2000 in it…no kidding).
When my grandmother died, we found money hidden in lots of places, but I never thought to look at the backs of the drawers. Luckily, I have her bedroom furniture so will be checking it soon! We found an envelope with a few hundred dollars sandwiched between dinner plates in the kitchen cabinet and in the pages of a bible. It took weeks to go through everything.
My grandmother’s wedding ring had become too big for her to wear and we found it in a “junk” drawer in the kitchen. My mother spent weeks going through all her stuff, so I would caution about having the sale too quickly.
Jeez. I guess the moral of the story is that, if you’re keeping cash in the house and hiding it so the Bad Guys don’t find it, to let the Good Guys know where it is.
I wonder how much cash that the Good Guys didn’t know about has been inadvertently disposed of. :((
When I was in college, my hometown next-door neighbors had gone out of town. Their college-student son had come home to find the refrigerator had gone out, so he disposed of all the spoiled food in it, only to find that he had thrown out tons of money that was hidden in a “food” box in the freezer. So yes. It is a good idea to tell the Good Guys where you have hidden it.
When my inlaws died, my husband was the sole heir and executor. I knew my FIL had given my MIL a piece of serious jewelry every Christmas. I couldn’t find it – despite going through all her clothes, pocket by pocket, all the drawers, all the boxes and cupboards. My only guess is that the live-in companion/nurse had beaten me to it, and she had vanished (probably died in hospital and no one told us).
^good reason to give it while living!!
Sorry this seems to be high jacked, Somemom. But I guess we are all saying…before you can really even have a sale, you are going to have to do some heavy duty cleaning out…unless your elders are minimalists.
We found a diamond pendant in a small plastic change purse…wrapped in toilet paper. I’m not making that up. I didn’t even know my mother owned a diamond pendant.
Once you get the sorting and going through done, you will know how much extra energy you have…and whether you want to hold a sale yourself, or not. The good thing about some of these estate sale folks is that they agree to take it all away when the sale is done. Otherwise, you are still left with schlepping leftover stuff someplace.
I can’t say enough how important it is to tell the Good Guys where stuff is hidden. And believe me–it could be anywhere. Including buried, tool shed, random box among papers.
The estate sale company I’m most familiar with has a lot of people working inside and out (parking included), good at deterring theft, prices things, takes care of final disposal, and a regular latrge e-mail list to advertise their sales.
I can’t imagine having anl estate sale (get rid of it all) in two weeks.
And if someone was a collector – do some research. Even if you don’t want it someone else does and the estate people may be unaware of current values.
I was one of those good guys…but believe me when I say…my elderly parent did not view me as such…and kept many secrets about her valuables and money. And stuff was hidden in the oddest places.
The estate sale guy was pretty confused why I was angry when I stopped the sale of the kitchen island as he was trying to wheel the kitchen island out the front door - it was on wheels but at 6’ long and plugged into an outlet in the floor - I bever thought it was “fair game”! He also sold the town-supplied recycling bucket and made presale deals to his friends. Some might have said this was a professional company but there are differences - and next time I would definately check references or BBB