Holding an Estate Sale Soon? Here Are Some Tips to Help You Out | Better HouseKeeper

Thinking about holding an estate sale to sell off your old stuff? Here is some advice you should consider!

An estate sale or an estate liquidation is a sale or auction often used to dispose of a substantial portion of the materials owned by a person who is recently deceased or who must dispose of their personal property to facilitate a move. Estate sales can also be used to make some extra money or to clear out unwanted items however, they can also be complicated and difficult to manage if you do not have the right understanding of how estate sales work so here are a few practical tips to help ensure estate sale success that you may use to get as many sales as possible.

Do Advance Research on All Items for Sale

Before opening the doors to your estate sale, go through any items you aren’t familiar with and do some diligent research on value by going to the library or using the internet to use eBay’s “advanced” search to filter items that have already sold. If you sort by “highest priced” first, you can see what’s highly valued and what’s not since ultimately what you don’t want to do is foolishly list an item for sale at a much lower price than valued, only to find out later that it was actually worth a large sum of money.

Advertise

Make sure to advertise your estate sale everywhere possible including local newspapers, light poles, mobile apps, on bulletin boards at the local grocery store and restaurants, and blast out messages to all your social media followers on group pages. The professionals behind https://www.truelegacyhomes.com/estate-sales/ point out that it is always a good idea to go to some estate sales before doing your own. This will enable you to see how things work and prepare yourself properly when it’s your turn to host an estate sale.

Use Signage to Provide Directions to the Location

Many shoppers stop by estate sales because they saw signage while driving around or exercising, so make sure to funnel motorists and pedestrians in from major roadways and crosswalks, then guide them right to the front door by providing clear, legible, signs that have large font and are easy to read when breezing by in a vehicle or jogging. Keep it simple with an arrow and an address.

Be Prepared for Large Crowds Early

Shoppers head out to estate sales bright and early so if you are still inside setting up and people start wandering in before you’ve had your first cup of coffee realize that your failure to plan ahead could lead to a loss of sales or even theft. It is not uncommon for estate sales to start as early as six or seven in the morning therefore it is a good idea to get everything set up the night before.

Clearly Mark Prices on All Items

Realize that if you fail to mark prices on all the items for sale, you are essentially forcing people to hunt you or your family members down to ask for the price at which point crowds and chaos may force them to give up trying and walk away from a potential purchase. You should also be aware of the fact that bargaining is often a big part of estate sales so pricing all sales items enables customers to make decisions about different items and make offers that are within your ballpark of expectations rather than being insulting to your intelligence.

Set Up a Table for Purchases

You will need a reasonable area near the entrance of the estate for shoppers to have enough room where they can set down the items they wish to purchase from you. Also, make sure you have enough space to collect the customer’s money and to complete each sale comfortably. Keeping any small but valuable items at or near the front sales table is well advised to cut down on theft of property by miscreants.

Make Sure the Entire Estate is Properly Staffed

It goes without saying that running an Estate sale is not a one-person show, therefore you should have family members or others covering each room of the house so that they may answer questions from customers while cutting down on theft. Obviously, have at least one person available to collect money from buyers.

Last but not least, get a cash box and make sure you have a change. Failure to have enough small bills to make a change may cause you to lose sales, so anticipate receiving hundred-dollar bills that you will need to make a change for thus, getting yourself a proper cash box so you can keep all of your change and the money from sales safe and organized is a wise idea.