Are you wondering what happens after estate sales in Overland Park, KS? We’re going to lay it all out here, including your options for dealing with leftover estate sale items. However, a great option is to avoid having leftover estate sale items altogether, which we’ll discuss more at the end of the post.
Following Estate Sales in Overland Park, KS
Once an estate sale is completed you are left with the decision of what to do with unsold items. On average most estate sales sell between seventy to ninety percent of items. Different factors affecting success include the local economy, what items are for sale, the location, date, and even the weather.
With most estate sales the owners have no time to waste in emptying out the property. However, it’s rare for an estate sale to sell every single item. There’s almost always something that gets left behind, whether it’s a couch, Christmas tree, set of dishes, etc. So what are your options for dealing with these unsold items after the sale?
4 Ways to Deal With Unsold Items at Estate Sales
You might be wondering what you can do with your unsold items – some obvious ideas that come to mind are selling them yourself, donating them to charity, giving them to the goodwill, or even giving them away as gifts to family members. We’ll discuss some of these common ideas as well as some other options that you may want to consider.
Donating
You surely already know that there are people out there who would need the items you might have leftover: clothes, toys, appliances, etc. If you aren’t able to find a buyer then think about donating these leftover estate sale items to a local charity. Just contact the closest charity in your area, and they should come and pick up your items for you free of charge. The majority of charities will also package the items and put them in their truck without needing your assistance.
Storage
Perhaps there are some leftover items that have sentimental value or are useful to you, so you don’t want to sell or donate them. In that case, you store them in a storage facility if you’re running short on storage space at home. For example, you might want to store some items out of the home and retrieve them later to give as gifts to children or family members.
Selling Them Yourself
This may be a good option for certain items if you use some ingenuity. For example, you might have a few tattered upholstered pieces at your sale that don’t get sold but could end up being sold at an upholsterer just down the road (as a possible example). It might have great value, so why would you want to just trash them if there’s a better, more convenient alternative?
Liquidation
However, if you want to get something for all of your items then there are liquidator services out there. But if that’s your goal, then it’s arguably smarter to hold an estate auction instead of an estate sale (yes, there is a difference). If you do decide to go the route of liquidation, then you should know that you won’t get as much money as you originally wanted. Companies offering liquidation usually pay “pennies on the dollar” for unsold items. You should only consider this option if you believe that you won’t get much money for your leftover items anyway. Liquidation can also work well for some people who have already left the area and don’t plan to return to deal with any “leftovers.”
Something else to keep in mind with liquidation is that it’s usually an “all or nothing” approach to getting rid of leftover estate sale items. For most liquidators, if you are not there to remove items that you want to keep, then everything will either get sold or donated.
However, if selling everything is your goal, then Busy Beever favors the approach of holding an estate auction, which we’ll now discuss below.
Auction Them
If you’d like to ensure that all items get sold and that you don’t need to worry about the above options, then we recommend having an estate auction instead; we do it all the time.
So what is the difference between an estate sale and an auction? First, let’s be clear: they are not the same thing. If you choose to hold an estate sale with Busy Beever, we will thoroughly research your items and they’ll all be priced ahead of time. Our goal is to figure out the fair marketing value for all of your items based on our experience from previous sales as well as research from online databases on recently sold items at auctions and their prices. If we do come across an unfamiliar item that requires specialized knowledge then we get input on the item from our local network of experts.
Estate Auction Advantages
Easier and Cheaper: an advantage of estate sale auctions is that research isn’t necessary for defining the prices of all items. Items prices are decided on the spot by buyers based on their bids, which can be advantageous in the amount of time and money that’s saved. Accurately pricing items requires much time, knowledge of the general market value, and resources (expert help).
Excitement: Auctions create more excitement because the prices aren’t set, and everyone can bid in the hopes of getting a good deal (under market value) on the items that they want. While some people like fixed prices, most would prefer the excitement that comes from attending an auction (and auctions are alive and well in 2020).
Everything Goes: We now come to the reason why an estate auction can be the best option if you don’t want to deal with trying to sell estate sale leftovers. In an auction, everything gets sold, which means that you won’t need to hire another company for liquidation services (where items get sold for pennies on the dollar). This is the main advantage of working with a company like Busy Beever.
If you’re in the greater metro area and you need advice on estate sales in Overland Park, KS or an estate auction; get in touch with us today!