Losing a loved one is never easy. And when the time comes to manage an estate, the process of sorting, valuing, and selling a lifetime of possessions can feel overwhelming. That's where a professional online estate sale company comes in — but not all companies are created equal. Knowing what to expect and how to prepare for your first consultation can make all the difference between a smooth, profitable experience and a stressful, costly one.
NYMES LLC | Not Your Mother’s Estate Sale
We believe an informed client is an empowered client. Here's everything you need to know before you sit down — virtually or in person — with a prospective estate sale company.
We Have to Have an Estate Sale, Now What?
Recent Clients Home Before their sale with Not Your Mother’s Estate Sale
We Have To Have An Estate Sale, Now What?
Overwhelmed is an understatement that comes to mind when I meet with families that are looking to have an estate sale. Very often it’s the children, grown maneuvering through their own lives, and then the family wrench is thrown into the picture. Parents facing moves to assisted living, moving to be closer to their children, or perhaps facing the finality of a parent’s death and preparing the home and contents for sale.
An estate sale for many people can be a great experience or a terrible one. This is a very intimate and personal event, strangers looking through prized possessions and haggling over prices can be downright nauseating for the family.
Done correctly although with the right liquidator, it can be almost freeing. Seeing beloved collectibles or heirloom furniture going to young couples can be thrilling. The start of a new journey, of new life, new love, new stories. And the sustainability is a great plus.
How to Prepare
Search through the home, become aware of what is really in the home, art, jewelry, furnishings, books or other collectibles.
Remove all private or sensitive paperwork, this could mean boxing papers up for later review or shredding it now. Check with your community center and see who in your area may do mass paper shreddings.
Take a photographic inventory, a few photos from each room, this will document the contents and allow you to share the contents as well with family members when making choices on what to keep or what to sell.
Be prepared no matter how prepared you are you probably are not prepared. It will be hard at some point just when is the unknown. Take your time, and be at peace with what ever you decide to do and when. This is your decision not the liquidators or realtors.
Above clients home after using Not Your Mother’s Estate Sale, 21 days from contract to sale closing.
What To Do When Your Family Does Not Want Your "Stuff" by T. Weiss
What to do when your family does not want your “stuff”, moving forward.
We all do it, we buy the “stuff” and sometimes we even justify it with an I will leave it for my kids when I am gone, it will have more value then.
While that is a noble idea, it is unfortunately not reality. Our families and friends don’t want our stuff. When the day comes that your “stuff” is theirs, I can assure you in most cases they are overwhelmed and they will say to the Estate Liquidator or Junk Hauler just to “Make it go away”.
It is really not that they don’t want it, it’s just most people have a very hard time processing grief no matter if it is real, financial, or physical loss. Handling a loved one’s collections and possessions is very overwhelming.
The question is how do we prepare our estates for the inevitable, the disbursement of our “stuff”?
Plan ahead, ask your family and friends to be honest and be prepared for some hard answers both good and bad. Not everyone feels the same about your collection whether is it a Picasso or Cabbage Patch Doll Collection.
Think about divesting any real-valued collections when speaking with an estate attorney or financial planner, decisions can be made during these conversations on where your beloved pieces should go and if they are sold who would benefit from the proceeds.
Start divesting now, while a difficult task a good estate sale liquidator can assist you through this “Downsizing” and you can enjoy the proceeds or Gift your ”stuff” how you would like. I have many clients that preplan their estate sales proactively years before they need to.