Options for Handling Assets of Estates
Handling the estate assets can be tough. Many factors go into determining the value of items, including age, condition, rarity, demand, and handling costs. Here are some options for handling estate assets.
Estate sales are a great way to make top dollar from estates with high dollar assets. However, estate sales generally take weeks to organize and are expensive for estates with minimal value. Most estate sales will retail items on day one, mark down items on day two, and severely discount remaining items on day three (high dollar items generally aren’t marked down). A percentage of the sale is held by the estate sale company for their services. Estate sales are a great way to liquidate an estate’s assets in a relatively short period of time.
Another option for liquidating an estate is to hire an auction company. Auction companies generally focus on high-end items and will charge a commission for selling those items at a public auction. However, many auction companies will charge moving and/or handling costs for removing items from a home. These expenses are generally taken out of the sale of the assets, so a $10,000 sale may yield a 30% commission for the auction company AND moving expenses of $750 (depending on the hourly rate or pre-determined rate).
A great option for selling estate assets is placing them in an upscale consignment store. Consignment stores will charge a commission for selling an item. It will generally take longer to sell consigned items, but will generally bring the estate more money than auctioning the items.
Items of minimal value may be ideal to donate. Donation companies can generally pick up items from an estate. Many donation companies will accept clothing, furniture, books, electronics, CD, vinyl records, vehicles, etc. Donations are a great way to dispense estate assets of minimal value.
Lastly, items that cannot be sold or donated generally need to be recycled or thrown away. Hiring a junk hauling company or an estate cleanout company or a hoarding cleanout service can help remove all remaining items in an estate. Using a roll-off container can provide an easy way to remove a large amount of trash and debris from an estate. However, check with the container company to see what can and cannot be placed into each container. Here is a video from an estate where the items of no value were taken to the local landfill: For more information videos like this, Subscribe to our YouTube channel HERE.
If the estate assets are coming out of an extremely dusty or dirty home, you may want to consider hiring a cleaning service as the assets are being removed. Most liquidation companies will require that the items be cleaned in order to be sold, and clean items will generally sell for more than unclean items. Maid services and office cleaning companies may not provide enough attention to detail for this type of cleaning. Additionally, if there are roaches, fleas, bed bugs, mice/rats, or any other pests in the home, you may need to hire a professional exterminator to get rid of the infestation and you may need to hire a biohazard cleanup company or bed bug cleanup company to assist with the process.
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