My Jennarocity Estate Sales

Not every estate sale company functions in the same way, but generally, a company will come in and work for you when there is considered to be enough in the proceeds of the sale from the items in a home to pay for the labor to take care of the sale itself. My Jennarocity gets paid from the proceeds of the sale itself. We charge a minimum of $1,500 or 30% of the proceeds from the sale, whichever is higher. This amount can increase depending on the size of the home and the amount of items the client requires be sold. We will organize the items in the home using our shelves or tables, or using the items within the home for display purposes. We then price all items in the home, advertise the sale using the internet or street signs, and conduct the sale on the premises. The client is then paid after our company pays itself, generally within two weeks of the sale ending (sometimes sooner, depending on how much is leftover and how the client instructs us to proceed).

How do I know if hiring an estate sale company is right for my situation?

While you might need several items to be sold, hiring a company may or may not be the correct route for you. Most estate sale companies require a minimum of proceeds to agree to take on the sale....usually the minimum is $10,000 or higher. This means that there must be enough items of value in the home to bring $10,000 or more with the proceeds of the sale. My Jennarocity does things a little differently - while we do not require a minimum amount of proceeds, we do require there be enough items of value to justify the payment we require for our services. On average, an estate sale of a home around 2,000 square feet that is full of items can take at least 100 hours (minimum) of man power. This includes organization of the items, research online to price the items, the actual tagging of the items, the cleanup and disposal of unsellable items and trash, time to conduct the actual sale, and disposal of leftover items after the sale is complete. This usually takes at least two people, if not more. We charge for our labor and expertise. Whether or not this cost is appropriate for your situation will be up to you and your family.

Our typical client does not have the physical ability, mental ability, or time to be able to conduct a sale for their home, so the cost of hiring a company to do it for them is considered well-worth-it. An estate sale is difficult for all the above-mentioned reasons, but also because it can be very emotionally taxing to go through a loved ones treasured items that they have a connection with, then watch strangers pick through and offer pennies on the dollar. An estate sale company not only offers the labor required to conduct the sale, but also offers clients a release from these burdens.While our clients might not make as much money from the sale of the items using an estate sale company as they would conducting the sale themselves, they find the cost worth it in the end simply from not having to worry about it.

There are a few routes you can take when it comes to deciding what to do in your situation and how to liquidate the items in a home. One option is obviously to hire an estate sale company. Another option would be to conduct the sale on your own. This option is suitable if 1) your family needs every penny from the sale itself, 2) If you just do not have enough items to justify hiring a company, 3) if you have the time and emotional strength to do it yourself, 4) if the proceeds of the sale must be dispersed between several people due to a will and not everyone will agree to hiring a company, 5) if you would like to have control over how much items are sold for, and where they will end up. A third option would be to have a local charity come pick the items up for donation. Most cities have a local charity with a truck that will come and load useful items for donation. While these charities cannot take everything, they can certainly take enough to help. This option works well for people who wouldn’t make much after hiring an estate sale company and would rather have the financial benefit for tax purposes, or if their loved one/themselves would rather see their items be donated to those who can’t afford them. This option is usually faster than an estate sale, as items can be picked up in one day and charities can come out within a week, so it’s a good option if time is of the essence for your family.

What does My Jennarocity require before agreeing to do a sale?

*As mentioned, we require that there are enough items of value to pay for our services.

*The second thing we require is at least two full weeks to get the sale organized and conducted. This two weeks is from the time we are able to enter the property to begin the process to the time the sale is finished and the final items are disposed of.

*We do not conduct estate sales in homes in which there are people still living. We’ve tried this and it never goes very well or very efficiently. We ask that the home be unoccupied and that we have full access to the home with a key whenever we need to enter and work. We also ask that once we go in to the home to begin working, that everyone with the family and friends no longer goes into the home unless absolutely necessary. This is addressed below in another question.

*We ask that the last day of the sale must not be the day of closing on the home. There have been times we have conducted a sale and told during the process that the last day of our sale is the day the owners must be out because of the sale of the home itself. This is unrealistic and unreasonable.....after the sale is over, there needs to be at least 4-5 days to allow for us, or our clients (whichever they decide) to remove the remaining items from the residence. There will always be “leftovers” in an estate sale, just like there are “leftovers” in a garage sale. These items must still be removed and that will take time. The only exception is if the new homeowner has agreed to take the home “as-is” and has approved in writing that the remaining items can be left.

*There are times we get asked to do an estate sale very last minute....it happens from time to time that an estate sale is unexpected and hasn’t been planned for, in advance. But most of the time, last minute requests simply come from people who are unaware of the process of doing an estate sale and who do not think it will take very long. To do a sale well and to make our clients as much money as possible, we generally require at least two weeks notice to get a sale on the calendar and to give our clients the time to look over the contract themselves or with family members.

*We require the home have utilities on throughout the entirety of the sale. This includes water, electricity and gas (if the gas powers the heating system and it is in the colder months). We simply cannot organize a home with no lights, and since we are a licensed business, we must be able to provide our workers with sanitary working conditions.

*We require the home be free of pests. It’s not uncommon to come across dead bugs in an estate sale, especially if the home has been unoccupied, and we expect this. But as mentioned above, we require that our workers are able to do their jobs in sanitary working conditions, so if we discover there is active infestation of any kind, we will stop the sale immediately.

What do you do with leftover or unsold items?

After our first few sales, it became obvious that there needed to be specific agreed-upon instructions from the client about what will be done with leftover or unsold items. There are three options. The first is that the items are left as-is, with us removing any property we brought to conduct the sale, and our client is responsible for finding the items a new home. The second option is that the leftover items become the property of My Jennarocity, and our company will donate or discard the items as they deem fit. Since we do not charge extra for this service to our clients, we do require that ownership of the items be transferred to us for tax-benefit purposes. The third option is that the client pay an additional fee for the company to discard the items on their behalf. In the event the client opts for the company to take care of the items, we make every effort to donate the items to the local charity of your choice.

Why can we not enter the residence between the time you start working until the time the sale is over?

As I mentioned previously, it is hard on a person to watch cherished family heirlooms and items get sold. It is even harder to watch them get sold for a price that is below what you feel they are worth. When people come and go in the home, especially after the items are organized and priced, there tends to be questions and concerns about the prices put on an item, which can lead to tense and unnecessary conversations. We price the items based on a variety of things, including second-hand value via online research, condition, ease of purchase and delivery (for example, a person might not pay as much for a bedroom set that requires them to disassemble and find transportation large enough to load), the demand of the item at previous estate sales (for example, while you might have a lovely doll collection, our experience has shown that dolls in this area simply do not sell well at estate sales), and value of the item in used condition compared to the value of the item that can still be purchased new (for example, a two year old vacuum at an estate sale vs. the same model brand new at a local retailer).

When it’s time to hand over the key to the home, we ask that everything that is left in the home will remain for the sale. Our assessment of the sale’s proceeds come from the items we see in the home. It is common that family members forget about certain items, but then see them displayed nicely on a shelf for a sale and decide last minute they’d like to keep it. Normally, one or two small items do not make a difference, but there have been instances where a family member takes more than one significant item of value, like pieces of furniture or collectibles. While we understand that these items do not belong to us, or determination to take the sale in the first place comes from the proceeds of the sale. If items of value continue to disappear before the sale even takes place, we are left with a sale that will not pay us our minimum or proceeds that do not show our clients that our work was worth it.

We always have a “drop-dead date” for every client that allows any and all friends and family members to come through and remove items they wish to keep. We totally understand that all friends and family have the ability to take everything they’d like from the home of a loved one and we encourage it. Our drop-dead date is the date upon which we take the key and begin working. This helps the family very much...there are times when one family member will be in charge of the estate of a loved one, for an example. It can be very frustrating when that person is trying to get family members to come by and collect items they’d like to keep, as these types of situations are not always a priority to everyone involved. Days turn into weeks, and before long, the person in charge is beating their heads against a wall because they are unable to proceed until family members come get items they want. A drop-dead date can be used to create a sense of urgency for family members. If they know items remaining after a certain date become part of the sale and they will no longer be able to keep them, they can then decide whether the items is enough of a priority to make time to collect or just to allow it to be sold - but it takes the pressure off and allows forward movement. The drop-dead date will be decided by the client and the company. If at that time, family members collected more than was anticipated, and a sale is no longer an appropriate route to take, at least the company can terminate the contract without spending any time or resources.

What do you do with personal items you come across?

No matter how much clients try to remove all personal items from the home, there will always be things they didn’t see or forgot about. These items can include old checkbooks, old company-branded materials, social security cards, passports, letter jackets, old IRS tax returns, old bank statements, keys, personal cards, address books, pictures, yearbooks, scrapbooks....and more. We never assume to know the importance of items that are personal in nature, especially things that have personal information like bank accounts or social security numbers. We always have a room that is closed off to the public where these items will go for safe-keeping. We will also communicate as best we can if we are unsure about selling or keeping an item. There have been times, for example, that we have come across items which might not have personal significance but historical significance, like a cheerleading uniform from the original years of the town’s main high school, where we will ask if the family wants to keep it or if we could donate it to the local historical society in their loved ones’ honor. We do our very best to communicate when we find these items and to make sure nothing is destroyed for the peace of mind of our clients.