The First Visit
The first time we meet with you, we discuss the agreement, explain our process as outlined here, and pick a sale date. We’ll take as many photos as possible on the first visit, so we can announce your sale immediately on estatesales.net, and post pictures to get shoppers excited about the items in your sale. The longer your sale is published on estatesales.net, the more ‘views’ your sale receives, and the more people come to shop your sale. We also post your sale on several online platforms to get your sale the most traction possible.
Organizing and Optimizing
When we begin the prep on your estate, we open and remove contents from all drawers, cabinets, attics, garages, outbuildings, etc., and begin the process of cleaning, staging and pricing. If there is dusty glassware or tarnished silver, we clean it up for maximum benefit. Also, we like to dust furniture and use a little scratch cover if needed. We want your sale to look its’ absolute best!
As we stage and price your sale, we continually add new photos and descriptions to estatesales.net, so we keep shoppers excited about shopping your sale. We’re often contacted via the platform (estatesales.net) about specific items in the sale, and we respond to those inquiries immediately. We keep our shoppers as well as our clients happy and well informed!
By optimizing the sale in this way, potential shoppers receive emails with updates, which tell shoppers there are new photos to view. Often, buyers ‘keyword search’, meaning they’re looking for a specific item, and we make sure your sale pops up as often as possible by using many frequently searched for terms in our descriptions.
Staging and Pricing
We customize your home or sale location into a well-merchandised ‘store’ that’s visually appealing and easy to shop. Using 6-foot tables covered with black stretch tablecloths, adding elevation, draping with beautiful fabrics, including lighting and other fun adornments, we create beautiful vignettes that encourage shoppers to purchase more than what they came in for! We polish silver, wash dusty dishware, polish furniture and touch up as needed. We love to make a sale sparkle!
Our frequent shoppers have come to love shopping our sales because they know the estate sale will be well organized, well priced, and enjoyable to shop. We always have a full candy bowl, and in the summer, cold watermelon. In the winter, we offer spiced cider or another hot beverage. We love to spoil our shoppers!
After decades of experience working with estate sales and antiques, we have a good idea of market values. We ensure that your items are priced at current market values, so they are sold for the most money the market will bear, but that they ARE sold! Our goal is to help you liquidate your estate completely.
The Sale
We staff our sales with friendly, knowledgeable, multilingual personnel who work with us on a permanent basis, so shoppers see familiar faces at our sales.
All sales are tracked on a custom designed excel spreadsheet by category and day, so at any point during the sale, we can tell the client to the penny what has been sold. This provides transparency for the client.
At the end of the sale, we provide a summary report by day and by category. And the auto-tally function in the spreadsheet allows us to settle the proceeds from the sale within a business day in cash. Our clients appreciate how easy this makes the pay out from the sale.
Post Sale
Our goal is to sell everything in the estate sale. We have a proven pricing and discount schedule that’s served us well over 35 years of managing estate sales that facilitates us in selling most of the contents.
For any unsold items, we use a few non-profit organizations to empty your house of contents. These non-profits have their 501(c)(3) certifications, so they can provide a tax donation form after the sale.
Happy Clients
Clients choose J Elliott Estate Sales because we make it easy and worry free when you need to liquidate an estate!
Contact us today to get started with your estate sale!