Perhaps you have come into possession of an estate that belonged to a relative or a close family friend. You realize that the best way to manage this estate is to have an estate sale. This can be a terrific option if the value of the items you wish to sell totals more than $3,000 and if those items are in good condition.
If you are considering having an estate sale sometime in the not too distant future, there are several things you will need to consider in order to make your auction the best possible event for you and for those who intend to purchase what you have up for auction.
Estate sales and property auctions are not all the same, obviously. The things that will be up for sale will be different with every one. At the same time, there are traits that all successful ones have in common. If you can get these traits to all fall in line for you, your sale can be set up for the kind of success you hope to have.
Here are three tips to help you organize and execute your estate sale.
1.) Run the sale for three days on the weekend.
If you look into the world of estate sales, you will see that they are set up to allow for the greatest number of potential bidders. If you schedule the dates of your sale during times when prospective buyers cannot make it, you will get no sales. It is as simple as that. Schedule your auction over three days on the weekend to maximize the number of people who can attend. Most sales run Friday through Sunday.
2.) Leave plenty of time to get adequate publicity.
Getting publicity for your sale can be a little bit tricky. You do not want to advertise too far in advance or people might forget. Advertising your estate sale online one to two weeks ahead of time will give prospective buyers plenty of time to arrange their schedules without being too far off that they will forget the event is happening. If you do advertise more than two weeks out, be sure to follow up with reminders.
3.) Reach all six of the important milestones for estate sale success.
Once you have scheduled the sale and have advertised it online two weeks out, there are six basic milestones that you want to reach as you move toward having the auction be a success. Those milestones include organizing the content, displaying the items effectively, having a proper appraisal of your items to see what you should expect to sell them for, the advertising (which you should have already done), actually holding the sale itself, and, finally, cleaning the house and tying up all of the loose ends.
Estate sales are not always easy to do. Besides the logistics of the actual sale, there can be an emotional component to it. Often, an estate sale is done because someone in the family has passed away. The items might have great sentimental value.
Regardless of the reason for the sale, if you run it over a weekend, have your publicity done properly, and stick to the six milestones as check lists for what needs to be accomplished, your sale should be a great success.