Estate Sales Made Easy: A Practical Guide to Success from Start to Finish

Generally, I arrive one hour before we begin each sale day, placing 18-by-24-inch signs on strategic street corners and in the estate-sale yard. It’s important to place the house sign in the middle of the yard as parked cars block it if it’s at the curb.

The crew tapes my pre-printed signage onto the walls using masking tape, which doesn’t harm painted surfaces and removes easily when the sale is finished.

We even have yellow caution tape, purchased at the local hardware store, and tape it on various thresholds or oddly set steps, giving a visual to alert customers to watch where they’re stepping, thus preventing accidents.

This yellow caution tape is also used over low pipes in old houses or low-hanging light fixtures that can’t be pulled up with S-hooks.

If not previously raised, we make sure that any hanging light fixtures are securely raised out of heads’ way as high as possible. If this S-hook raising isn’t quite high enough because the fixture is more stationary, we apply the yellow caution tape, draping it down low enough to make a passerby notice and duck.

I supply matching black aprons for all workers to wear, which in turn allows customers to know who to ask for help. Each apron houses a roll of masking tape for marking something sold and a black Sharpie.

I host the checkout table and strategically place my workers where clear visibility spots are. Usually, besides myself, there are three to five workers for Saturday and three to four on Sunday.

My workers help all they can to sell the merchandise throughout both days. Often, just chatting with a customer about something they clearly admire will spawn a sale.

Saturday’s pricing is firm unless a customer wishes to purchase large amounts of items. Then I step in to price and finalize the sale. I’m up and down out of my seat all day, both days, helping customers, and I will place my brother in my stead at the checkout table.

It’s like a symphony of people, swaying this way and that to dodge the chest of drawers being moved carefully down the stairs from the second-floor bedroom. Or the living room sofa, up and out the front door with, “Excuse me, coming through! Watch the glass door! Watch your elbows, the fixture is sticking out! Please hold open the door.” Thank-yous abound because all who enter or leave seem to have a kindness and understanding about them. Not all customers are so lovely, but 99 percent certainly are!

Just like Bob, an 88-year-young gentleman. What a sweetie! A few months back I wrote this blog post about Bob.

Days ebb and flow so quickly that I forgot to blog of customer Bob and what he said on Saturday, April 16.

When he arrives at my sales, he makes a beeline to my checkout table, always with a smile. I saw him coming and said, “Hi, Bob. Glad to see you!” He’s 88 years young, you see, and wears a smile that lasts the entire time he’s at my sales.

He walked over and said, “When I peruse the estate sales online, I make sure I stop by the sale where the lady always smiles!”

“Really?” I asked. “I’m the smiling lady?”

“Yes, you always have a smile for all your customers. You know, when I was younger, I had lots of anger issues and went to a doctor for it. That doctor told me that if I’d only wake with a smile and greet all my adversities with that smile, then all my troubles wouldn’t seem so large. A positive attitude and smile changes how I see things every day!”

I know I smile a lot because my father also stated something similar. I asked him several years back, “How it is that you always seem to smile no matter what?”

“Well, honey. I learned a long time ago that I could either wake each morning with a smile and deal with the day or I could decide to be a grump every day. I chose to smile and that’s how I’ve lived my life ever since.”

Bob agreed and thanked me for always smiling and being pleasant to all that enter and leave my sales.

What a grand thing to note. It made my day that I make his day when he enters my sales. Oh, sure, there are clients and customers that curl my toes, but I always handle things with a calmness of spirit. Why should I stoop to any other level? That would only burn my insides, and they’d just walk out the door. No, I chose to smile. Thanks, Bob.

l’m such a people person that I could chat for hours if the conversation is enlightening and intelligent! Bob also came to my sale in March 2016 with this information, which I promptly blogged the next day, as follows:

Last weekend, I handled another wonderful estate sale. Approximately 300 customers attended each of the two sale days. The rooms filled with smiles, oohs, and aahs as persons picked up this or that to purchase. By 1 P.M., Bob, a kind gentleman who visits my sales often, sat in a chair across from my checkout table. His smile reminded me of my precious father, Victor, now gone. Mr. Bob exudes the same vim, vigor, and kindness my father had, which makes me feel my father’s presence.

Soon Bob began telling me stories of his time in the navy during 1947–1948 in the Marshall Islands. I jotted notes as his stories unfolded. He spoke of Kwajalein, Bikini Atoll, Likiep, and other islands where nuclear weapon tests took place and how when an undercover officer visited them asking questions, one private spoke way too much and was escorted back to the United States. Bob sat silently, later learning the man who listened was there specifically to learn which men divulged info and which didn’t. He mentioned, too, that many mornings his shoes were underwater when the tide was up. It was extremely interesting and caused me to reread part of The Ankle Express¹, a book I wrote about my father’s equally interesting Navy life.

My father’s Navy years from 1942–1944 as an armed guard aboard Merchant Marine carriers are shared in the book. His stories in the Solomon Islands, the European and Pacific Theaters’, Australia, and other ports of call are amazing! One of which included the Blitz while in Hull, England.

Switching gears . . . It’s amazing how life on the other side comes through.

When my father is with me, I see a gnat swirling around my face. I know Dad is there. (Others, I’m told, see ladybugs or butterflies, familiar signs specific to them, letting them know a family member is with them, too.) This day, I saw the gnat only while Bob spoke of the navy. The gnat walked on my left hand, leaving when Bob left. It made me mist up and wonder if others appreciated my father’s stories, like I did, and Bob’s stories, as much as I do. Bob was even amazed and thanked me for listening. It was my pleasure, without a doubt! I wonder, too, how many diligently listened to my father’s stories, perhaps as he cut their hair at his barber shop. At any rate, his stories will never be forgotten, since I wrote his life history, covering 385 pages. He was so pleased one of his children took the time to interview him and completed the book before his last month on earth. I salute you, my precious father and Bob. Keep those stories coming!

Also, at this home . . . in a few pictures were many orbs! In a conversation with the widower, I told him of the photos with orbs. One photo was of the large oval dining-room table, which housed at least 20 orbs. It was of this picture that I asked him if his wife worked at, knowing she sewed. When this photo was taken, I had no lights on nor were the window curtains open. He paused, looking at the table, and somberly said, “We had so many wonderful family dinners there with the kids and grandkids.” Later, he asked if I’d send him and his son the pictures via e-mail. Well, of course, I said yes and did so that evening. The orbs are very visible and abound in both photos.

When I toured the slew of pictures I took for the sale, I also saw orbs over the twin beds in the basement. A place where family often stayed when visiting, I was told.

The son told his father he saw things often, too, at his own home and would enjoy the pictures, stating how interesting it was to know his late wife and mother of his children was there.

So pay attention and tell your stories. People really do want to hear or read them.

Who knows, maybe one of your pictures shows a relative’s orbs.

I have such lovely customers! Here’s another blog I wrote so as not to forget.

Last weekend at an enormous tool/estate sale a kind lady named Betty came up to the checkout table loaded with goods to purchase.

Betty thanked me for my kind words within the estate sale notices. I asked her which words she liked. She said, “You always add ‘take care’ or ‘be safe,’ and no other estate sale company ever seems to care about their customers like you do!”

I pondered her words, stood up, walked around my table, and hugged her for the kindness of her compliment.

I do wish everyone a safe day or to be safe until we meet at the sale. It’s just my way. I truly love my customers. If not for them, my sales would not enable my livelihood, nor would I know the kindnesses they gift me in return.

Some, as mentioned in a previous post, state, “You’re the smiling estate sale lady,” and I love it!

You see, kindness goes a long way, and yes, it pays its own way via smiles, hugs, and yes, even with compensation.

When a business owner develops that one special trait, the business will soar!

My father’s barber business ran the same way. So many walked into his shop happy, even though it was standing room only, till he closed it at age 81. Often, he told me, “Honey, I have the best job ever! We laugh and cut up all day long and I get paid for haircuts and tips. I just love my business.” Because of his wonderful thriving business, he and Mom took us on two-week road trips every year I can remember, from the late ’50s till I married in 1972. Trips included the Smoky Mountains (at least a dozen times, which was where Dad and Mom honeymooned), the Wisconsin Dells, the Rocky Mountains, Yankee Stadium, the Royal Gorge, Niagara Falls (both the United States and Canada sides), and so many states in between. All from the tips he saved each year! I didn’t know then, but it was as if we were rich!

After my second husband died, I took all four children on numerous trips as well, from estate sales and previously auctioned profits. These were fun times with my kids, and these trips helped me acknowledge what a grand gift my father had given us each year and the cost it entailed.

Last weekend, Betty, with her hands full of goodies, asked, “How much?” I told her $30, but she handed me $40.

I said, “Here’s your change.”

She promptly said, “Oh no, you get that as a tip. You deserve it! I just love you and how kind you are to everyone! No, that’s yours!”

I was taken aback because tips are rarely given in this business—until last Sunday. Generally, it’s a thank-you at the end of the sale by the homeowners or the real-estate person who referred me. Money is usually spent on goods.

I’m pleased that kindness pays its way!

Please show kindness to one and all.

After the last table and supplies are packed in my SUV, the cleanout crew waits patiently to enter the estate to clean out all the remaining items. Note, this is only factored in the sale if the client has signed off on the box relating to this transaction. I then pay the cleanout crew foreman from the proceeds, leave for a few hours, and return to make sure they’re doing all that’s expected. They always come through!

Once the sale is finished and the cleanout crew is finishing up, I take off, knowing my job and theirs are well done.

Mondays, I’ve allotted for time off; however, I may have new estates to view for future sales. All monies are tallied Monday evening from tickets I use for calculation purposes only. Commission is taken off the top as well as the cleanout crew check. Final proceeds, in the form of a cashier’s check, are sent to the relative in charge no later than the following Wednesday, via a Priority envelope.

Then the estate sale process begins again the following week. I’ve built up quite a following of over 21,000 customers, which in turn allows for a great deal of referrals.