Thanks, all of you! I am still mulling it over....it will be quite some time before I am ready to go thru with whichever I decide, as I still have to go thru the entire house and decide what I am keeping, and etc. I am leaning toward an estate sale, I have been getting info as well, that there are a couple local entities that are trustworthy and do this. It would be worth my time and money to just let somebody else do the work. I don’t have the time, really. We both work full time and have our own affairs to take care of. And while I might piecemeal some items thru eBay, or a local dealer, that will take longer and make me put forth more effort as well, so not all of it will be done that way. Will see. Have a house full at the moment, only got one room done, ha.

quote:

Originally posted by m1009:
Thanks, all of you! I am still mulling it over....it will be quite some time before I am ready to go thru with whichever I decide, as I still have to go thru the entire house and decide what I am keeping, and etc. I am leaning toward an estate sale, I have been getting info as well, that there are a couple local entities that are trustworthy and do this. It would be worth my time and money to just let somebody else do the work. I don’t have the time, really. We both work full time and have our own affairs to take care of. And while I might piecemeal some items thru eBay, or a local dealer, that will take longer and make me put forth more effort as well, so not all of it will be done that way. Will see. Have a house full at the moment, only got one room done, ha.

take you time,

going thru my Fathers house was a bit of a chore, and brought back lots of memories,

we did it basically a room at a time, and used several rooms to stage stuff in,


Dad passed in Apr, it was July or Aug before we had the sale,

Depending on your income bracket you can take what you want and consider donation the company will send a truck haul it all off and give you a tax receipt...
I've been to a few estate sales and i'd be surprised if 25% of the crap was ever purchased.... Then What?

Not the way it is on EBTH. Everything listed sold and brought prices comparable to eBay.

Thanks again, everybody! Going over tomorrow with a small crew of good friends to at least clean up and see what’s there. And that will prob only be a couple rooms in one day, if I’m lucky.
One of my friends has had experience with estate sales, thru her family, so will see what she thinks.
And, my income bracket is not that high, lol. One reason we are both still working, ha,ha.

I was royally screwed by an estate sale company. Shafted on the items sold and they cherry picked stuff that "just somehow disappeared" Later found out that the male part of the team was actually a crook. Had I known that I would have not hired them. His name didn't appear until after all was done. Just a warning; some are very unscrupulous.

Back in 2000 I handled the estate of my mother.

Large amount of antique furniture. I contacted a local auctioneer that specialized in antiques. He viewed the items and agreed to a sale. He had a list of buyers to send flyers on the sale.

We had a large turn out and the sale went extremely well. I was really concerned about the weather. If it rained it would have been bad since all the stuff was going to be outside.

This worked for me back then. The key to the sale was getting information of the sale to the right people.

Update! After asking here, and among colleagues and friends, I decided on using an auction business. Spoke to a nice lady, who has been in the business with her dad since she was a child. Everybody I knew recommended her as very honest and forthright. Just had the auction last Saturday, and while not everything was taken for the auction, with what was taken, I did manage a little profit.
More than I had expected, so I am pleased. Now if only the house will sell, lol.
That is going thru a realtor for now, as is, so will see. It does need some work, and I really don’t have the time or money to invest in any upgrades, so it might take me a while even though it’s supposedly a sellers market.
Thanks again to everybody who gave me advice, it did help!

glad to hear you were happy with the out come,

life is tough enough with the loss of a family member.

best wishes with the house

Some things I learned from handling my father's estate:

The furniture isn't worth much. No matter how ornate or beautiful the wood, it isn't worth much. If someone will just take it away - let them. You don't want to be stuck having to get rid of a mattress or two.

The ornate carnival glass- isn't worth much

The wonderful water painting that has been hanging for the last 10 years - probably isn't worth much.

Costume jewelry might be able to be sold on Ebay

Diamonds, silver and gold - take to a gold or diamond dealer for an evaluation. Sell for cash if you aren't interested in holding.

You could have an open house and let people come in and haggle for the things you don't want. It's 2 days of your life and then let Goodwill come and take the remaining stuff away.

My grandmother passed a few years ago at 100 and her and my grandpa had been in the same home for 75 years. They saved everything. After the grandkids picked over what the wanted my mom and aunt hired an estate sale person. He handled everything including the advertising and his crew handled the sale. 3 days starting on a Friday. People lined up 100 deep to pay $1 for postcards people had mailed my grandparents 40 years ago. Dishrags. Pots and pans. It was amazing. They sold EVERYTHING. Cash only. At the end of the sale they split it with my mom and aunt 60/40 with the family getting 60. I thought that was a rediculous split on almost 20k in household item sales but then again I wasn’t going to hold the garage sale myself. But the property was completely cleaned out after it was over and a with a splash of paint it sold in a week.