Q. Why should I pay someone to run my sale when I can do it myself?
Some things are better left to professionals and an estate sale is usually one of those things. When a family member passes away, there are many, many decisions to make and situations to resolve. The entire estate must be dealt with, including the contents of the home. The inside of the home is one of the most common areas that bog people down. Thousands of things reside in a home: pictures, papers, clothes, dishes, furniture, collectibles, keepsakes, linens, on and on the list can go. Each item requires a decision and an action. Each item can trigger memories. This all amounts to a lot of time and a lot of emotional energy. Holding your own estate sale involves a tremendous amount of preparation… far more than many people realize. Organization and research will demand a great deal of your time and energy. With emotions running high and energy running low, trying to do it all alone can make an already stressful situation totally overwhelming for most people. And in spite of all the hard work and time invested, you could have very little to show for all your efforts.
Hiring our professional team will help minimize the time and energy required to empty a home. We can organize the contents of the home and makes it easy for the family to know what should be kept in the family and what should be sold. Items are cleaned and attractively arranged for sale. Our estate sale service also provides pricing by a fully accredited and certified appraiser. This help is often invaluable in generating the most revenue from a sale. We provide the advertising and marketing necessary to attract buyers as well as a professional sales staff to assist them. We do all the work and have the resources to ensure the sale reaches its highest revenue potential.
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Q. I live in a gated community, senior apartment or high rise that doesn't allow estate sales. Do you offer a solution?
Yes! We offer many solutions, one of which is our 6000 sq ft. showroom located on Cherry St. We can take and store your items enabling us to filter them into other estate sales or make them available at one of our quarterly consignment sales inside the showroom with other estates from around the Tulsa area.
Q. Do I have enough for an Estate Sale? We just have everyday items, no fine art or antiques.........
You would be surprised at how well things sell at our sales. Not every home is filled with antiques and period furniture. We find a lot of people are out there looking for regular useable items, a lightly used, resonably priced sofa, a new roasting pan for the kitchen etc. etc. Over the years we have conducted sales in all types of homes and commercial buildings, from million dollar mansions to doctors offices. We look at everything.
Q.What are your charges for conducting an Estate Sales?
We operate on a flat commission basis, which we will discuss on our free initial consultation. There are absolutely no other out of pocket expenses for you with exception on rare occasions of a commercial dumpster for serious trash removal.
Q. How will you advertise my sale?
We advertise in a number of ways, always leaving the final address of the sale until the last moment. We use our extensive email list to send out sale information to our great customer base. We update our website, Instagram and Facebook page as well as run teaser ads in the local papers before the sale and full blown ads on sale days. We also run ads on local online sites as well as paid websites.
Q. How will you price and evaluate my sale items?
We are familiar with a lot of items that we have sold before or that are in our area of expertise. For anything else we research diligently. We can operate on any premises using our wireless equipment which alows us to use laptop computers to research recent sales and assure the best prices for you. Remember, we are commission based so it's in our best interest to get the best prices we can.
Q. Can I put a reserve price on items?
Some individual items may be sold with a reserve price, we don't like to have too many reserves on things as this can sometimes dissuade buyers. We do understand also that you don't want to give away items too cheaply. Reserves can be discussed on a per-client basis.
Q. What payment methods do you accept on sale days?
We accept cash and all major credit cards with our wireless credit card machine.
Q. What should I do to get ready for the sale?
About the only requirements we have is that there be running water and electricity. We work by contract and ask that you have the legal right to sell or dispose of the personal property. Our credit card machine is wireless so we don't even need a phone line. Please don't throw or donate anything until we have looked at it, you would be surprised what some clients have thrown away thinking it had little to no value.
Q. I have a family member that wants to include some items in the sale. Can you separate our payments?
Absolutely, we write receipts for everything and everything in the house is priced individually. We will either initial the items or use a color coded tag system for that those items and separate payments when we go through the receipts at the end of each day. We are used to accepting quality consignments into our sales and even offer a quarterly consignment sale out of our building located on the Cherry St. corridor.
Q. What about sales tax?
It is state law that we collect sales tax unless the purchaser is tax exempt. We require a current copy of the sale tax ID on file otherwise we collect sales tax at the required rate. This is our responsibility and all sales tax collected is remitted to the State of Oklahoma Tax Commission using our tax number.
Q. How long will the sale run for?
Usually a sale will run for three days. There are exceptions to this, large sales with lots of items may run for longer and smaller sales may run for less.
Q. What happens to unsold items?
That depends, no sale will ever be completely sold out wall to wall, there are usually some leftovers. As part of our service we will haul off or donate unwanted sale items. Again this is done on a per-client basis, some families want to go through leftovers themselves and we are happy to work with our clients and listen to their needs. There are rare exceptions to this in the case of 'hoarder' type sales where there is a exceptionally large amount of trash or unsellable items.
Q. When can I expect to get paid the proceeds from the sale?
We like to try and pay clients as quickly as possible, usually within 10 - 15 business days of the sale concluding, however it can also depend on the size of the sale.
Q. I just have a few items I'd like to know the value of, can you appraise them for me?
Absolutely, we can do a Verbal Appraisal of Value (VAV). This works well for clients who simply want to know the background or fair market value of their items. This service is charged at an hourly rate with a 2 hour minimum.
Q. What is a Visual Proof Insurance Appraisal?
This is a full written appraisal conducted in accordance with both ISA and USPAP standards. We come to you and photograph individual items, collections or the whole premises. We give you the report and keep a copy safe should you need a replacement at a future date. This is excellent for any type of insurance claim. If you need the report updating in the future we only have to update the report with current market values.
Q. I need an appraisal for court, is this something you can do?
Yes it is. We have worked with individuals, probate lawyers and divorce lawyers on a number of occasions. We can also be called in as expert witnesses should the need arise.