Yard sale this weekend! - RV-Dreams Community Forum

LibertyLinda · RV-Dreams Family Member

Yard sale this weekend!

NWescapee · RV-Dreams Family Member

Good luck, we had one moving sale and I decided that was enough. Too much stress for the return and having people bargaining on something I put a low price on to begin with got me really discouraged. In the end I decided I'd just rather donate to charity than go through it a second time. The on-line estate sales were much easier and yielded a better return for us and our time.

Dance Chick · RV-Dreams Family Member

I have a friend who has just gone fulltime. They've sold their house and are out of it. They are closing in a week or so. They're having an estate or tag sale this weekend. The people come in, price everything, and take care of it all. If you're interested, I can find out the name of the company and how it worked out for her. I believe the company is a national company. Either way, good luck with it and hope it all goes smoothly for you.

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

The best way to find an estate sale company is to go estate sale shopping yourself. My mother loves estate sales and has already had me meet the owner of one company she really likes, just in case. Look at their ads in the paper, nickel paper, etc., and go see how they stage, price and control sales. Do this multiple weekends and you will find a good company.

LibertyLinda · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thanks Dance chick & bjoyce,
That is a very interesting suggestion. What is their commission take usually? Or fees? Or overall cost to hire them?

Dance Chick · RV-Dreams Family Member

Linda...I'll e-mail her and get the scoop. I'll also ask her to let me know how it goes this weekend and get back with you.

NWescapee · RV-Dreams Family Member

Linda - here are 2 different experiences:

Traditional Estate sale - they came out and looked at all that we had to sell, told us we'd have to vacate the house for a week which for us would have meant living in our TT that we still had on our driveway, total sale might net 6-7K, their minimum was 4.5K. So, for a week of living on our driveway and all that hassle (strangers in our house for a week pricing everything left behind) we might get 1.5K - 2.5K in return? Not worth it.

Then we contacted an online estate sale company associated with "Caring Transitions", she conducted 2 estate sales for us online, took very little effort and time on our part, we netted the same return we would have with the traditional sale, still sold a few items on Craigslist and had our own moving sale and in the end netted at least 2.5K more than we would have with the traditional estate sale. Why? Because we didn't have a lot of collectibles, antiques or really special items but we had someone who was willing to work with what we had and let us set the minimum amounts. Plus now we have a much better tax write-off with everything we donated that didn't sell. We would not have had the same results with the traditional estate sale.

Just our experience, for what it's worth.

Clay L · RV-Dreams Family Member

We had two yard sales. One at the house and three years later one at our storage unit. Our neighbor when we lived in the house owned the storage unit business and was kind enough to let us hold the sale. Many places won't.

We found that ten cents on the dollar was about the best we could expect.

Of course eleven years later after we just became snowbirds and had all of our stuff moved from NH to CO, we are glad that we still have all the stuff that didn't sell.

LibertyLinda · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thanks all!
Dance Chick, I will look forward to what you find out :)
NWescapee, I took a look at Caring Transitions website and I bookmarked it for when we get closer to that time- thanks.

We had a really good first yard sale day today & made some really good money! We have it again tomorrow and then its done. There is someone that will take donations of stuff and sell themselves with the proceeds for our Troops that are deployed - that is where the remainder stuff will go :)

It was much easier selling the stuff, than it was going through it. I really felt good at the end of the day because it does represent another big step towards full-timing. Talking about it with people helps in its own way. Some people look at you like you have 6 heads, some are envious of the goal - its funny. Anyway, I still do not ever want to do another yard sale again - and we won't!

Rock on Dreamers!

Dance Chick · RV-Dreams Family Member

Ann4now wrote:
Thanks Dance chick & bjoyce,
That is a very interesting suggestion. What is their commission take usually? Or fees? Or overall cost to hire them?

Linda...I got the scoop from my friend.

The company they hired is a local (Lakeland FL) company, called At Your Service Estate Sales, but they advertise at www.Estatesales.net. You can go there and try to find someone local to you. She said their sale went very well. They even sold their SUV for them.

They charged a 40% commission, but pay all expenses - advertising, credit card fees, etc. out of their commission, so no extra fees to you. The company comes into your house and takes everything out of drawers, cabinets, storage shed, etc., and prices it. There is absolutely no work for you involved. My friend had already moved out, so the sales crew being in her home wasn't an issue.

The company took some of the items that didn't sell to their next sale. They will take whatever is left to a consignment shop of your choice or will donate to whomever you choose. They leave the house in "swept clean" condition.

Hope this was helpful. Good Luck with whatever you choose.

cherylbrv · RV-Dreams Family Member

Just a word of warning -- I tried to use a company such as that one. I think it's an awesome idea and business model. Unfortunately (for me, anyway), it's only worth their while if they can get good money from the sale, which means they won't work with junk!

When they came in to assess my belongings, they didn't even finish looking past the 2nd room (out of 7!) and said "people just don't buy that style" - meaning your stuff is crap and worthless.

Needless to say, whatever I think I can get more than $100 for, I am listing on Craigslist; all the rest I am giving away via Freecycle or the Salvation Army (who will pick things up from inside the house; many other charity organizations you need to leave everything at the curb). For me, it's just not worth the aggravation to nickel and dime my stuff. I'd rather just be rid of it all.

Good luck!

LibertyLinda · RV-Dreams Family Member

Dance Chick,
Thank you so much! That is very interesting - and I did choke on my chip when I saw the "40% commission". But hey, it may be worth continued research - and I thank you for yours :)

Cheryl,
Wow, I would have been so mad at those people! I hope to sell as much as we can on Craigs list as well- my husband has better luck with it for some reason LOL.

Thanks all -this is great information.

cherylbrv · RV-Dreams Family Member

60% in my pocket would be well worth not having to do a stitch of work!

dewwood · RV-Dreams Family Member

Another similar option is selling to an antique shop. We just purchased a wardrobe and in talking to the owner he said he gets most of his stuff from estates. He goes in and offers a price for everything in the house including autos etc. He just purchased and estate from a couple who were moving to Florida and did not need any of their things for there other home so he bought it all. You know up front exactly how much you will be getting with no commission and no advertising expense. One word of caution on any sale is: don't cherry pick all of the good pieces before hand and expect to get a good price for the remaining items.

NWescapee · RV-Dreams Family Member

I'm with Cherylbrv, we didn't have the "right look" for some of the estate sale companies which is why Caring Transitions online estate sale worked better for us. Plus the "hassle factor" of vacating your home before it's ready to sell while they stage the sale in a traditional esate sale would have been a hassle, not impossible, but for the return more hassle than it was worth. Our contemporary furniture just wasn't what the market looked for in traditional real estate sales but worked really well with an online estate sale.

kb0zke · RV-Dreams Family Member

Our first yard sale is this weekend. We're going to tell people that we're more interested in stuff going away than making a ton of money. No, we haven't put everything out, partly because we do want some stuff in the house when we list it, and some stuff we know we can get more for selling in another fashion. Our church is having a yard sale next weekend, so some of what doesn't sell here will go there. I've been pushing for an auction later on.

LibertyLinda · RV-Dreams Family Member

Good Luck David!

It was amazing, we priced stuff to sell and most people made offers which we just took - no haggling bleh We also did not mind the money biggrin

kb0zke · RV-Dreams Family Member

One day done, and a bunch of stuff gone. Some of the stuff that sold I didn't think would, so I must have priced it right. I also told people to make offers on stuff, and I took most of them. Almost everyone who came bought at least something. We'll see how tomorrow goes.

LibertyLinda · RV-Dreams Family Member

It was so amazing the stuff we thought would never sell - did!

Did you get the reactions we did when we chose to reveal why we were selling stuff - like we had 6 heads? confuse

Sounds like you had a great response for a holiday weekend. Enjoy the rest of it. smile