Full-service estate sales
A whole household inventoried, researched, priced, staged and sold on site, then settled in writing.
Learn more
Estate sales · Oʻahu
A household handled with care.
Most families reach us after a loss, or when a parent is moving and a lifetime of belongings is still in the house. We handle that part, and we tell you plainly what is worth doing.
- No cost Consultation and walkthrough, no obligation
- 25–35% Estimated commission, quoted up front
Why families call
Usually it is not really about the furniture
People reach us in the middle of something else: settling a parent's estate, emptying a house before a closing, or trying to help from another time zone. The contents of the house are the part nobody has time for.
Someone has died
A parent's house is still full, the family is spread out, and no one is sure what any of it is worth or where to start. We can take that piece and give you an ordered plan for it.
A parent is downsizing
Moving to assisted living or a smaller place means most of a household cannot come along. The decisions are hard enough without also running a sale.
There is a date on the calendar
A closing, a lease end, a pack-out or a PCS date. Once a date exists, the question stops being whether to deal with the contents and becomes how fast it can be done properly.
What we do
Four ways families use us
Downsizing and senior moves
Keep, gift, sell, donate. Sorted room by room, at a pace the family can live with.
Learn more
Inherited estates
An entire life's belongings, handled alongside probate and a listing date, so you can deal with the rest.
Learn more
Relocation and moving sales
Scheduled backwards from a pack-out or a flight, because shipping a household off-island rarely pays.
Learn moreTwo ways to run it
Online, in person, or a combination
Not every estate should be sold the same way. Which route fits yours is decided at the walkthrough, based on the contents, the building and your timeline, and it is written into the scope before anything starts.
An online sale
The contents are photographed, cataloged and listed, and the sale runs online rather than as an open house. Buyers then collect on a scheduled pickup day.
- Far fewer strangers walking through the home
- The sale stays open longer than a single weekend, so it reaches buyers who could never have come in person
- Collection is scheduled and controlled rather than open-door
The walkthrough and the photography still happen in the house. Online changes where the selling happens, not how carefully the contents are handled.
An in-person sale
The traditional staffed, on-site estate sale across an agreed set of days, run under control with one entry and exit and a staffed checkout.
- Suits a full household where volume and furniture carry the sale
- Buyers can handle and assess pieces themselves
- Clears a large quantity in a short, concentrated window
Some Oʻahu buildings do not permit a unit to be opened to the public at all. Where that is true, an on-site sale is off the table and an online sale may be the route that remains.
How it works
You know the schedule before we start
-
Consultation
You tell us where the property is and roughly what is in it. If a sale is not the right route, we say so on this call.
-
Walkthrough & plan
We look at the contents, the access and, for a condominium, the house rules. That is also where we decide together whether the estate is better sold online, in person, or as a combination of the two.
-
Preparation
The longest stage. Sorting room by room and pricing against completed sales rather than asking prices.
-
Photograph & list
The contents are photographed, inventoried and labeled, then the sale is prepared and listed where estate sale buyers actually look.
-
The sale, then settlement
The sale runs in the agreed format over the agreed dates. Afterwards you get an itemized accounting: gross sales, the fee, agreed costs, and what is owed to you.
Why it is different here
An Oʻahu estate sale is not a mainland one with better weather
A large share of estates here sit in condominiums, where the building decides what is possible before you do. Disposal is by appointment and capped. Humidity is hard on the contents of a house left closed up. And local demand for Hawaiiana, koa and Asian pieces runs well above what mainland price guides say.
Those four things change the plan, and a company that has not worked through them finds out the expensive way.
Pricing, said plainly
One commission, quoted before we start
Our estimated range is 25–35% of gross sale proceeds, and almost no estate sale company in Hawaii publishes a rate at all. Where a particular estate lands depends on what the sale is likely to earn and how much work it takes to get there.
It comes out of the proceeds at settlement rather than being billed to you upfront, and your rate is confirmed in writing after the walkthrough, before you commit to anything.
Who we are
Meet Ben Hartiens
Ben Hartiens is a Marine veteran and the founder of HiEstateSales. He has called Kailua home for just under a decade. After years of service, Ben settled on Oʻahu with his wife and saw a real need in the community: families navigating the difficult process of settling an estate, often during one of the hardest seasons of their lives.
He started HiEstateSales to fill that gap, bringing the discipline and commitment to excellence from his military background into a business built around caring for people first. Ben is passionate about serving Oʻahu families with honesty, compassion, and attention to detail, treating every estate and every family with the same care he would give his own.
Estate sales done with care for those in need.
Where we work
Where we work on Oʻahu
Honolulu
The urban core, from the older single-family neighborhoods above the highway to the high-rise corridor. This is where AOAO house rules decide what is possible.
East Honolulu
Larger single-family homes, long-tenure households, and hillside or marina-front access. Deep estates, and the area where furniture volume is highest.
Windward Oʻahu
Kailua, Kāneʻohe and the coast north. Older single-family housing, the island's dampest conditions, and the MCBH relocation cycle.
Central & Leeward Oʻahu
Planned subdivisions with HOA rules, and the relocation cycle around Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam and Schofield Barracks driving the calendar.
North Shore
Older plantation-era and beach housing, spread out, with distance and seasonal traffic as the governing constraints on scheduling and marketing.
Neighbor island service may be available by special quote. Contact us to discuss your property.
Planning an estate sale?
Tell us where the property is, roughly what's in it, and the date you're working toward. We'll come look, tell you what the estate is realistically likely to do, and put the scope and the rate in writing before you commit to anything.
No cost for the consultation. No obligation to book a sale.