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What does an estate liquidation entail?
Most estate liquidations include our evaluator coming into your home and assess the project. After your initial free consultation with us, and you agree to hire us, we sort, clean, organize, research, get appraisals, price, photograph, advertise, and sell your collection and furnishings right from your home. At the end of the estate sale, we will haul off or remove any items that did not sell if you so specify. We even sweep and vacuum the house so that you can market the house and not have to worry about any more work on your end.
How do I know if I need to have an estate sale?
When your home or the home of your loved one has enough items in it to furnish a small apartment, you have enough. If you have only a few things, a consignment sale or a buyout might be more up your alley.
How do I choose an estate liquidator to help me?
When you interview different companies to consult and assess the content of the sale, try to keep in mind these people will be handling your family heirlooms. If you feel you can trust them alone in your house and that you can communicate openly with them about your wishes, you are probably safe to hire them. Do check for license, insurance, and or references before choosing. You will know when you have met the right ‘fit’ for your sale.
What do I need to do to prepare for an estate sale?
We ask you to focus on removing personal items and things you’d like to keep, and then leave the rest for us to handle. If any personal items are left, such as family photos or financial documents, our team will collect these items and box them up for you before the sale. We ask you not to pack or organize items – leaving items where they are placed allows our staff ample time to stage and price your goods.
How far in advance do I have to book a sale at my home?
The sale process takes approximately 10-14 days from the time that we first enter your home until the last item is removed. We prefer to schedule sales well in advance due to our full calendar, but we can often provide quick turnaround in dire situations. Our goal is to provide you the service you need, so we will go out of our way to get you on our sale schedule.
How do you price items?
Our staff comprises a team of trained individuals with in-depth industry experience, which means that your items will be researched and priced by qualified professionals with extensive market knowledge. We consult several online subscription databases and draw from our professional experience to price your items for the highest price point possible. We also have the added advantage of access to an extensively educated auction house staff that can review anything in a home.
How do I know what has sold and what has been donated after the sale?
We will give you a computerized itemized sheet of everything that sells for over $50 and we will go over anything that hasn't sold and several options available to you.
How do you market your estate sales?
Our most powerful marketing tool is our email and social media subscriber list which numbers over 4,000 names – these are all self-subscribers, not purchased addresses, which means you have thousands of interested parties reviewing your sale. Each estate sale will have a dedicated email and social media campaign designed by our on-staff marketing professional. Additionally, every sale is listed on EstateSales.net, EstateSales.org, GSLR.com, and more, with a description of your sale and professionally edited, color photos. Physical signage is posted were allowed and online maps are provided to direct buyers to your sale.
When will I be paid?
For our local clients, cash or a business check will be given to you within 24 hours. For our non-local clients, a business check will be mailed out the following Monday.
How does the liquidator get paid from my sale?
You pay nothing upfront. With a normal in-house estate sale, we pay the expenses for the entire sale out of our pocket and are reimbursed from the sale’s gross proceeds. We work on commission only - our typical rate is 35% to 40% depending on the amount of prep time and scope of the sale.
What am I responsible for during the sale work wise?
In most cases, absolutely nothing. It is nice if you give us a contact phone number so that we can call you from time to time to check on any issues that do come up like, “Should we sell a coin collection that we found, or would you care to keep it.”
What happens if liquidator finds money, Photos, Love letters, and Personal papers inside the house?
We cannot answer for other liquidators but in our case, we simply set these things aside, along with anything else that seems too personal to sell without permission, and have the family come and retrieve it or we will mail it to you upon request.
How do you appraise Art and Jewelry?
We have a local IFAA appraiser we use and trust for authentication & appraisals of your fine art.
We use our GIA Certified Appraiser to determine the value of fine jewelry, diamonds & gemstones for jewelry.
How do you protect fine jewelry and silver from theft?
We provide locking display cases that are always manned by a trained sales professional, so you can feel comfortable entrusting us to sell your fine jewelry, silver, and other small objects of high value. Specialty items are also advertised online to access a global market
What if I decide I want to keep something out of the sale?
Simply ask. We comply.
What if I want to cancel the sale after this company has worked on it for awhile? What happens?
We would charge you for our time worked and the money spent on advertising. This is not preferred but we understand when people change their minds and hearts.
Do you only liquidate conventional, residential homes?
No. We will liquidate commercial property contents as well as storage lockers, barns, garages, boats, automobiles, and various other types of machinery.
I am a real estate agent with a client that needs to have an estate sale. What should I do?
We love working with real estate agents to help serve their clients. Please contact us so we can help work out a customized solution to suit your needs.