About
About HiEstateSales
Who we are
The founder
Ben Hartiens
Founder, HiEstateSales. Marine veteran.
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.
Who this is for
Downsizing, and moves with a date attached
Not every estate follows a death. A good share of the work is families reorganizing a household while everyone involved is still very much around, and those jobs have their own pressures.
A parent moving to somewhere smaller
Assisted living, a condominium, or in with family. Most of a household cannot come along, and the decisions about what does are being made by people who are already tired. The practical part, working out what the rest is worth and turning it into money, is the part we can take.
PCS and military moves
A pack-out date is a hard date, and weight allowances are set by rank, dependency status and move type. Going over is charged back to you afterwards, which quietly turns the sell-versus-ship question into a financial one. Furniture and bulky goods are usually where that decision gets made.
Families deciding from far away
Often the person responsible is on the mainland, working through it by phone between other obligations. That changes what is needed from us: more written detail, fewer decisions that require someone to be standing in the room.
Why it exists
Three things we think most sales get wrong
Preparation is rushed
The value is found before the doors open, by opening every drawer rather than the obvious ones. A compressed preparation still produces a sale. It just produces a smaller one, and nobody ever finds out what was missed.
Pricing is done from a guide
Fair market value means what comparable items have actually sold for, adjusted for condition and local demand. On this island that last adjustment is not cosmetic, and a national price guide gets it wrong in both directions.
The ending is left vague
What happens to what does not sell, when you get paid, and what the accounting looks like are all decided in the agreement, before the sale. Leaving those to the last afternoon is how families end up with a cleared house and an argument.
What we commit to
In writing, before anything starts
- A published fee range. An estimated 25–35% of gross sales, on the website, before you call.
- A written scope. The rate, what is included and excluded, the schedule, the settlement terms, and the plan for anything unsold.
- An itemized settlement. Gross sales, the commission, any agreed costs, and your balance.
- An honest assessment, including no. If an on-site sale is not right for your estate, we say so at the consultation rather than after you have signed.
What we will not do
Things we have decided against
- Quote an estate we have not seen. Anyone who does is quoting a hope.
- Take a job that should not be done. Some estates do not support a staffed on-site sale, and saying so is part of the service.
- Pad the site with proof we do not have. No invented client counts, sales totals, ratings or testimonials.
- Start work on a handshake. Written scope first, every time, including when you are in a hurry.
Where we serve
Oʻahu, in detail
Oʻahu is our service area, which is why it gets five pages of detail rather than one. Each part of the island changes how a sale is staffed and scheduled.
Neighbor island service may be available by special quote. Contact us to discuss your property. Crew travel between islands is a real cost, and a company that waves it away will disappoint somebody.
Local knowledge, specifically
"Locally owned" is easy to put on a website. What counts is having worked through the things that only come up here:
- AOAO house rules that can forbid a public sale outright
- Elevator and loading-zone windows in a high-rise
- Appointment-only bulky-item disposal
- PCS pack-out dates and weight allowances
- What humidity does to a house closed up for months
- Pricing Hawaiiana and Asian pieces against local demand, not mainland guides
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.