Have you been thinking about downsizing or liquidating your estate via an online estate auction? There are questions that often come up that we’d like to address in this article:
We offer a few options including a supervised event in which we take care of everything from cataloging, marketing, and removal (which is the most hassle-free option for you); a self-supervised event in which you have control of the process; or a bulk sale in which you sell the entire estate to the highest bidder.
Every auction is different, so our commission rates can vary depending on how many items you are selling, the amount of work needed to set up the auction, and how much we anticipate to spend on marketing the auction.
Depending on how many and the type of items you want to sell, you could keep the items in the home or have the estate packed up and sent to our warehouse.
The first thing we do is sort through the items and group pieces together into lots. We then write descriptions and take photos of each lot. Once everything is catalogued and published online, we market the auction and begin taking bids from buyers online. The auction is usually online for about two weeks.
We typically hold a preview day the day before or on the morning that the auction starts to close. Buyers can come to inspect items and ask questions.
We have an email list of buyers that receive notification of all our auctions. We also market via social media including Facebook paid campaigns, Instagram, Twitter, and online estate directories. Depending on the auction we may also market via newspaper ads and direct mail. In our experience we have found that Facebook has brought in many targeted buyers who are interested in estate sale auctions.
In our experience almost all items do sell, however, in the rare occasion that an item(s) does not sell, we can discuss what you would like to do.
Still not sure that liquidating an estate is right for you? We have a page dedicated to sellers that offers more information. You can also read the benefits of doing an online estate auction versus a traditional estate sale.
