| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Amie C. |
Posted - Apr 06 2007 : 06:12:30 AM
Hi, ladies. My mil has just decided that she wants to put her house on the market and move into a senior living apartment. She wants to move THIS SPRING, which means we don't have much time to empty out her house. Has anyone out there dealt with estate sale companies? Do you know how to run an estate sale? We are wondering whether we should have someone else empty the house after she moves or if we should try to just hold a big weekend household sale on our own. We'd like to get as much money for her moving expenses as possible, and we'd also like to sell some of our own things at the same time to make room for the family stuff she wants us to have. Anyone done this before? |
| 3 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| KYgurlsrbest |
Posted - Apr 09 2007 : 07:04:23 AM
I sure know how that goes. There's always storage! Sometimes you can do a month to month basis, which is what we did. My Aunt had a lot of very large pieces of furniture, that she generously left to me, but we have a cottage, so in order to clean out the house, I put them into storage for a couple of months, so we could remodel our place to fit them!
It's probably best to do it and get it over with--if anything it will show you where your organizing skills are!
Good luck to you!
J
"In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt." Margaret Atwood
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| Amie C. |
Posted - Apr 09 2007 : 06:59:39 AM
Thanks for the advice, Jonni. My mil doesn't have a lot of antiques, just bric a brac and household stuff. So it probably would make more sense to hold the sale ourselves. But the amount of work it will take looks pretty daunting. While she is getting ready to move, we also have to remodel two rooms of our house to accomodate the furniture she wants to give us (whether we want the stuff or not! That's a whole 'nother story...) Needed to be done anyway, but I thought we were going to have more than two months to do it. |
| KYgurlsrbest |
Posted - Apr 06 2007 : 06:46:40 AM
I work for an estate attorney and I've also had an estate sale for my great aunt.
We always advise trying to have a sale yourself, simply because (even though it's a bit of a headache) you don't have to pay someone a fee. I had an auctioneer come out to my Great Aunt's house, and he decided that, though she had antiques, it wasn't enough to satisfy his premium, so I simply held a sale myself. I advertised in the locals, and the Columbus Dispatch, and then had folks come into the house to view the furniture and accesories. You should make an inventory for your record keeping purposes before the sale. I also looked up values of certain pieces of furniture and gave myself a margin on what I would or wouldn't take. The prices were marked, and if they asked for a lower price, I already knew what I was going to do...During the two day sale, I had my mother and uncle there to assist people, answer questions, as well as keep a log of purchases. I tried to put like things together in "box lots", like linens, cookware, bakeware all grouped together etc. $15.00 a box, regardless of what's there, no switching out. Since I was from out of town, and wasn't capable of "holding" everything, I made sure that people understood from the ads that you buy/take today, so they should come prepared with blankets and a truck.
Anything else that didn't make the cut, if we didn't want it, I took it right down to the St. Vincent Depaul for a receipt of taxable donation for use on future tax returns.
The only thing I would say is this: even though the things are really emotionally valuable to you, and may even be an heirloom antique, people come looking for bargains and will actually insult you. We had someone offer us $40.00 for an 1860's mahogany 4 poster bed that was in mint condition. While I knew we could sell it for more on ebay, or what have you, I didn't have the time to do that--I had to think of my Aunt and her care, so I ended up selling it for $350.00 to another more sensible purchaser.
Hope that helps.
"In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt." Margaret Atwood
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