Frequently asked questions
about estate liquidation.

Yes. We specialize in liquidating estates, leaving your property completely empty and broomswept ready for closing or listing.

We achieve this by providing:

• estate sales - selling your estate’s contents directly from your property to visiting shoppers via an open house format sale;

• home clearance - removing your estate items from the property where an estate sale is finished or not possible.

We can provide estate sale and home clearance services together or independently of each other, depending on your requirements.

No. We do not consign or buy items.

Yes. We conduct demolition sales.

No. We are not licensed appraisers and therefore cannot provide formal appraisals. We can recommend a licensed appraiser upon request.

We strongly recommend you obtain formal appraisals from a licensed appraiser for high value items as doing so significantly increases your sales revenue potential.

We book up fast so it’s best to let us know at least a month in advance of your intended sale date if you’d like us manage your estate liquidation, and preferably well before that.

The process starts with a viability assessment for us to make sure an estate sale is possible. We then provide you with a formal proposal and written agreement to sign. This process can take a few days so please allow time.

Once we have agreed on a date for your estate sale, preparation usually starts about two weeks before.

We provide customized proposals as each situation is unique. Please get in touch and we will advise further.

As a rule we work on a sales commission basis for estate sales and a flat fee basis for home clearance services. The higher the value of the inventory for sale the more competitive we can be.

Our rates are in line with the national average for our industry and well below those of comparable premium liquidators in other areas.

An estate sale typically takes place for two days over a weekend. Some situations may necessitate different schedules.

Preparation work usually starts about two weeks prior to the estate sale.

It’s best to book us several weeks in advance of that to ensure availability.

We can usually complete a full home clearance in 1-3 days.

The estate sale preparation process generally takes about two weeks from our team starting work to holding your estate sale. You can expect our team to be working full time in your property during the week preceding your estate sale, depending on the amount of preparation required.

We can usually complete a home clearance in 1-3 days after a sale has finished.

We book up fast and encourage you to give us the go ahead at least several weeks in advance of work starting.

The timing of your estate sale is entirely up to you, subject to our availability and having sufficient time to complete the process.

Some considerations that could help you determine the ideal time to hold your estate sale include:

• after the property has been vacated

• after non-sale items have been removed

• after your property’s sale is secured

• when your realtor advises is best.

We cannot conduct an estate sale in different phases unless there is some significant addition to the inventory offered for sale in the later phase. Shoppers will not generally revisit a home at a later date if they have already seen it.

For the same reason we can not conduct an estate sale in a home where there has recently been another estate sale or sale of any kind.

We use a variety of promotional channels to advertise your estate sale and reach tens of thousands of potential buyers.

These include the nation’s largest estate sales listings websites, regional advertising to vastly extend your advertising reach (as opposed to the limited local-only advertising which is typically provided by our competitors), our proprietary email marketing database, social media, signage as appropriate and direct marketing to buyer contacts within our network.

While we will promote your estate sale online we do not conduct transactions online. All transactions are conducted at the estate sale location. This is safer and more efficient for you.

We do not generally sell your items before the sale opens. We are committed to treating all our shoppers in a fair and ethical manner and so we do not grant early access privileges for select buyers. Such practices deter shoppers from attending estate sales, which ultimately runs counter to your goals and ours.

In some situations, for example where the sale inventory is of a specialist or niche nature, we may explore more highly targeted sales channels prior to opening the sale to the public, which could entail pre-selling your items if both you and we agree that it is most likely in your best interests to do so.

Buyers generally remove their purchases as soon as they are paid for.

In cases where we deem items are impractical to move during sale hours, we may coordinate for buyers to collect them the day after the sale.

Sale items are never collected more than a day or two after the sale, e.g. they can not be sold now and collected in several weeks.

We accept cash and credit cards from our shoppers. We do not accept checks.

We collect sales tax as required by law.

Yes. We collect sales tax from our shoppers as required by law. This is added to the selling price of your items as you would expect in any retail environment. Tax collected is passed to the government and is not included in gross sale proceeds.

Where items are left over it is entirely up to you how they are managed after an estate sale has finished. It is typical for our clients to donate unsold items to charities.

We can provide home clearance services upon request, removing remaining estate items and leaving your property empty and broomswept ready for listing or closing. This service is particularly useful for clients who do not live locally or who cannot dedicate the considerable time required to empty an estate themselves.

It is common for larger purchases to be picked up by shoppers on the day after an estate sale in situations where they cannot be removed safely during sale hours.

If you require our home clearance services to remove remaining items after your estate sale, this usually takes place over 1-3 days following your estate sale.

Otherwise the sale is concluded and your account settled within 6 working days and often faster.

Yes. We use a written agreement, which is intended to provide clarity and peace of mind for you. We will send this agreement to you for your review and signature after we have assessed the viability of an estate sale for your situation, provided you with a formal proposal and received notice of your intent to proceed.

To optimize your sale space for success it will likely be necessary for us to move and merchandise your sale items in the days running up to the sale. It is always highly preferable to plan for our team to start work after your property has been vacated and all non-sale items have been removed. In any event, we will ask you to clearly separate sale items from non-sale items before we start work, and ensure that our team has unhindered access to all sale inventory and the entire sale space for the duration of the preparation process.

As is typical in our industry, we ask our clients not to attend their estate sales for a number of reasons. This is similar to the way realtors conduct open-house viewings and is proven to increase the likelihood of a successful estate sale, which is ultimately your goal and ours.

Good general rules to keep in mind are:

▪ we sell everything and anything

▪ high levels of inventory volume, variety and value are critical to the viability and success of your estate sale.

Popular categories include jewelry, designer fashion and furniture, fine art and sterling silver as well as unique, rare or niche items. We can even sell your vehicles. Download our handy printable category checklist to learn what to include in your estate sale.

Absolutely. The more valuable and compelling our estate sale inventory is, the more shopper interest we will attract and the more successful your estate sale will be.

We have access to a huge network of shoppers, including many niche segments and high spend buyers. There is no more cost and time efficient way to sell your niche and high value items. For this reason, if an estate sale is viable in your situation then there will rarely be any benefit to you in trying to sell specialty items via other channels.

A typically inventory at one of our estate sales will comprise several hundred items or more, or a solid assortment of high value items.

If your sale inventory is smaller in volume or lower in value then an estate sale may not be the best fit for you. In these cases we recommend contacting a local consignment store or reseller of pre-owned items with their own retail outlet.

We encourage you to remove all non-sale items from the sale space prior to our team starting work. It is typical for our clients to have vacated the property entirely before we start work, having removed everything that is not for sale.

Yes. We can sell and keep separate accounts for items belonging to more than one person at your estate sale, for example other family members. Increased inventory levels always helps deliver a more successful estate sale.

We will not sell our own inventory at your estate sale unless it is in your interest for us to do so in order to supplement inventory levels, which would otherwise be insufficient to make an estate sale viable. In such cases we would only do so with your express permission and only when we have inventory available.

Our meticulous pricing is one of the main reasons for our proven track record of maximizing sales potential. In addition to our extensive in-house expertise, which is based on many years of experience, we have access to a multitude of pricing resources including subject-matter specialists and online databases for a large variety of item categories. No category is too specialist. We also welcome any insights and paperwork our clients can provide.

It is typical for us to discount unsold inventory as the estate sale progresses, as our clients’ primary goal is usually to minimize the considerable burden of moving, storing or disposing of unsold items on a tight deadline after an estate sale has concluded.

We are happy to partner with you in setting minimum sale prices on a small number of sale items or very high value inventory.

As our estate sales usually contain hundreds or thousands of inventory items it is impractical for us to set minimum prices on more than a small number of items or lower value inventory, as well as being counter productive to maximizing overall sales revenue and emptying the property, which are usually our clients’ main objectives.

As is typical in our industry we do not provide inventory price lists before or after the sale. However we are happy to do this upon request with items of very high value.

We service these zip codes:

33133
33134
33139
33140
33143
33146
33149
33155
33156
33157
33158
33176

No. We do not provide an offsite location that your items can be sold from and nor do we provide moving services.

We can conduct an estate sale in a rented property as long as written permission is secured from the property owner prior to us starting work.

Local authorities may also require this permission before granting the necessary permit, so it is important for you to obtain the property owner’s permission before starting the process.

We conduct estate sales in commercial properties. If the space is rented you must secure written permission from the property owner prior to us starting work. Local authorities may also require this permission before granting the necessary permit, so it is important for you to obtain the property owner’s permission before starting the process.

In some instances you may not be able to obtain permission from your community or landlord for an estate sale.

In these situations we may still be able to help you by holding an estate sale by appointment only, depending on the assortment of inventory for sale. Read more here about tthe right inventory for a successful estate sale.

We are unable to sell your items from a commercial storage unit for a number of reasons. You would need to relocate the items to a residential property within our service area for us to be able to help you.

While we aim to consolidate your estate sale in to the smallest number of rooms possible, we must be able to properly display all sale items while allowing shoppers to move safely and comfortably around the entire sale space.

For this reason rooms containing sale items can not be sealed off and nor can large items be moved to other areas of the house if doing so will prohibit us from merchandising them properly. It is unlikely that we can restrict access to upper floors unless they contain no sale items. We can never restrict a sale to a garage or outside space only, as we do not conduct garage or yard sales.

Yes. While we carry our industry’s leading insurance coverage for businesses of our kind, as is typical among reputable estate liquidators we strictly require that our client has homeowners’ insurance in place on the property prior to us starting work. We will not be able to start work without it.