Estate sale or garage sales? - RV-Dreams Community Forum

fun2travel · RV-Dreams Family Member

Estate sale or garage sales?

RonandBee · RV-Dreams Family Member

I'd love to find out about this too. We are in the same exact boat. Looking at getting rid of everything and getting the house on the market soon, and hopefully on the road full-time by the end of summer.

Ron and Marybeth

The Junkman · RV-Dreams Family Member

Estate sale is just a fancy name for a garage sale...or maybe I don't know the difference.

Companies will come do it for you, for maybe 30%. Then send the rest to public auction.

Close your eyes for all of it.. as you may likely get pennies on the dollar for the stuff.

If you have time.. the most valuable, shippable stuff should go on ebay.

If you rather sell it all at once. put a ad on craiglist. Maybe thrift stores, consignment shops etc.. will buy the whole lot,..

Just one guys opinion.

Good luck.

-- Edited by The Junkman on Wednesday 28th of January 2015 06:31:15 PM

NWescapee · RV-Dreams Family Member

We had 2 online estate sales for specific items, either collections of items or furniture, made a LOT more on that than the garage sale. For us, in the end, given the time invested, I would have been better off to continuing painting the house to get it ready to go on the market than having a garage sale. We used a Company called Caring Transitions to host our online estate sale, they took all the pictures, did all the online work, we just had to be there for people to pick up the stuff. We had a lot of things, not antiques, but grouping together item, such as all my pizza making "stuff" and cookbooks, or all the assorted baking gear resulted in selling several lots of "stuff" that would have gone for .05 each at the garage sale.

Just my experience, but I would never host a garage sale again.

DebbieM · RV-Dreams Family Member

I agree with Ruth and the Junkman. Craislist or ebay the really good stuff and donate the rest. Maybe try 1 garage sale if you love them. Too much work for very little money compared to having that free time to ready the house for sale, pack, get ready for the road!

Bill and Jodee · RV-Dreams Family Member

We did Craigslist for bigger items, collections, etc. Jewelry to gold dealer (they also have a weekly auction that helped). I am weird and like doing garage sales so did several and got rid of 90% of our stuff. The remaining large things went on freecycle.com and were picked up within 5 hours. Small stuff went to Goodwill.

We had a long time frame so doing garage sales as we purged different areas worked for us. If it was a quick turnaround I likely would have gone with an estate sale company and had them do the whole house/garage at once.

No matter the process, being DONE is the best feeling!

Jodee

cpaulsen · RV-Dreams Family Member

We did a garage sale for about 6 hours......could not believe what was sold. You have to price it right if you want to get rid of it. We did!! Leftovers went on Craigslist and at the end of 2 weeks.......hardly anything left. What was left went to Goodwill.

Camper Chronicles · RV-Dreams Family Member

We did a garage sale made $1,000 and sold everything that was left to one of the professionals that comes through. It was a TON of work because of the sheer volume of stuff. If you can find someone to handle it for you I definitely think it would be worth the 30%. If I had to do it all over again I would call someone, have them make me an offer, and then donate the rest.

lindy · RV-Dreams Family Member

DW and I have discussed this several time for when it comes time to sell our S&B when we go full time. I'm of the feeling that - Sell the house whole, lock stock and barrel, with everything in it, to include all outside equipment, i.e. chainsaws, log splitter, tractors, etc.

The Restless Youngs · RV-Dreams Family Member

Another thing that we found very useful is local garage sale sites on Facebook. Just do a Facebook search for the town or county you live in to see if there's a local site where you live. For the most part, a lot quicker and easier than craigslist and just better experience (less negotiating, etc). We did our share on craigslist for furniture and larger items. Did one garage sale....seemed like a lot of work with people rooting through your stuff offering you a nickel!! We only did it because it was a neighborhood garage sale; I wouldn't have put the effort into organizing myself!! We also donated lots of stuff to goodwill, salvation army, habitat, etc.

Also, when we listed our house for sale, we did say that furnishings were negotiable (beyond the sale price!!). Our buyer was moving from California from a 1200 ft condo, so needed some of our furniture....worked out great.

Good article on Facebook groups: http://www.today.com/money/5-steps-sell-your-stuff-extra-cash-2D80457539

-- Edited by byseaandbyland on Thursday 29th of January 2015 08:40:53 PM

FastEagle · RV-Dreams Family Member

Our stuff went sort of like this. Kids got first choice of stuff we were going to part with. Then we sold stuff on eBay auctions for about 3-4 months. Then we did a three day yard sale. Leftovers were given to Goodwill except items we didn’t want to part with. Those went into a storage facility for safe keeping. The storage facility turned out to be a great idea because it gave us a place to store things when our rig got to heavy from purchases made while traveling.

We sort of got hooked on eBay auctions and made shopping yard sales, estate sales and flea market sales a hobby while traveling. Just small items but if they don’t sell right away they add up and pretty soon that extra space in the basement is full. Our kids and grand kids lived where our storage unit was located so whenever we visited them we off loaded any extra stuff that would lighten our load.

Our Rig: http://www.irv2.com/photopost/showfull.php?photo=16890

FastEagle

-- Edited by FastEagle on Friday 30th of January 2015 08:55:03 AM

RVKevi · RV-Dreams Family Member

Another place you might want to try is a furniture consignment store. We did pretty good on craigslist, but had a solid wood bedroom set that just wasn't selling. We took it to a local consignment store and it sold within a month at more than our lowest craigslist price had been.

JackKim · RV-Dreams Family Member

We made well over $12,000 in 3 Estate sales. Lots of work, but it paid off.

WendysPhotos · RV-Dreams Family Member

We sold the furniture with the house. Gave to relatives. Gave to GoodWill. Then found a little auction house that you bring your stuff to them and they auction it off at thier weekly auction and write you a check. We leave in 3 days and are just now getting the last of the stuff in the MH.

Selah · RV-Dreams Family Member

We had a consignment service handle our things. They took 30% but we recieved so much more than we could have ever gotten from a garage sale. When we were setting aside things we thought would need to donate they told us to wait till after they were through. I was amazed at what they sold, even our garbage cans, shop towels and rags, old tools, dishes, glasses, bath towels, furniture, clothing, just about everything. Once the kids took what they wanted and we stored a few paintings and things we moved onto our coach and turned the house over to them. Some things whent on thier web site, some on Craig's List, some to local consignment shops. It took about three weeks and all but a handful of pretty worthless stuff was left. That went to Good Will or the trash.
All in all I think, at least for us, that was the best choice.

marianne57 · RV-Dreams Family Member

byseaandbyland wrote:
Another thing that we found very useful is local garage sale sites on Facebook. Just do a Facebook search for the town or county you live in to see if there's a local site where you live.

Thanks for this great tip! I never heard of this, but tried it for our area over the weekend. I thought I'd test it on Sunday with a corner desk and office chair. I am not exaggerating! Within 1 minute I had 3 hits and within 20 minutes I had a buyer. Tonight they came to pick them up. I'm thrilled! I really appreciate this forum for useful info like this. Should make getting rid of some of our larger items over this year much easier. Thanks again!

-- Edited by byseaandbyland on Thursday 29th of January 2015 08:40:53 PM