Services
Full-service estate sales
The standard route, and the one that returns the most for a full household: everything sorted, researched, priced, staged and sold on site over an agreed set of days, with an itemized accounting at the end.
What "full service" actually means
It means you hand over a house and get back a number, a cleared property and a statement: rather than a list of tasks you now have to project-manage from the mainland.
In practice the work divides into three unequal parts. Preparation is by far the largest: opening every drawer, cabinet and box, deciding what is saleable, and researching anything that is not ordinary. Staging and marketing is short but decides attendance. The sale itself is two or three days of controlled, staffed retail.
Families consistently underestimate the first part and overestimate the last. The value in an estate sale is found during preparation, not during the sale: by the time the doors open, the number is largely already set.
What is in scope
Ordinarily the entire contents of the property: furniture, kitchen and dining, linens, clothing, tools, garage and yard, garden equipment, books and paper, art and decorative objects, jewelry and small valuables, and the accumulated contents of storage. Anything you are keeping comes out of the house, or is excluded in writing, before preparation starts.
Do not clear anything first
Costume jewelry, older kitchen and barware, tools, sewing and craft supplies, ephemera and the contents of paperwork drawers routinely carry real value. Take out what is personal, private or legally sensitive. Leave the rest.
Stage by stage
How a full-service sale runs
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Walkthrough and written scope
We look at the contents, the volume, the access and the parking, and, for a condominium, the house rules and the resident manager. You get the rate, the scope, the schedule, the settlement terms and the unsold-item plan in writing.
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Sorting and inventory
Room by room, including drawers, closets, cabinets and storage. Saleable is separated from unsaleable, and anything requiring research is set aside rather than guessed at.
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Research and pricing
Priced against what comparable items have actually sold for (completed sales, not asking prices), adjusted for condition, completeness and demand in this market specifically, which for several categories is not the mainland market.
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Staging
The house is arranged so it can be shopped: like with like, clear circulation, everything visible and reachable, high-value items in a supervised case, rooms not in the sale closed off.
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Photography and listing
Estate sale buyers are an organized audience who follow sales weekly. The sale is photographed and listed where that audience already looks, with categories described accurately so the right buyers arrive on the right day.
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The sale
Staffed across the agreed days, with a single controlled entry and exit, a staffed checkout, and occupancy capped where rooms are tight. Prices reduce progressively toward the close.
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Settlement
An itemized accounting: gross sales, the commission, any separately agreed costs, and the balance owed to you: on the terms set out in the agreement you signed before any of this started.
What makes a sale go well
- Time. Several weeks between walkthrough and sale. Compressing it costs money, because the items needing research are the ones carrying the most value.
- A whole house. Sales that have been picked over before we arrive draw fewer buyers and sell through less of what remains.
- One decision-maker. Items pulled from a staged sale after pricing disrupt the room and cost money. Settle family claims before preparation, not during the sale.
- Access. Somewhere for buyers to park and somewhere for a truck to get close. It sounds minor. On this island it is not.
What tends to go wrong
- Clearing first. The single most expensive mistake, and the only one that cannot be undone.
- Discovering the house rules late. A building that will not permit a public sale changes the entire plan, and finding out in week three wastes the schedule.
- Leaving a property closed up. Humidity is hard on upholstery, leather, paper, photographs and textiles. Contents sitting through a long probate are not holding still.
- Family renegotiating mid-sale. Nothing stalls a sale room faster than prices being overridden while buyers are standing in it.
Start with a walkthrough
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.