Our customers continually tell us how helpful this post is to their decision-making process. In this post, we will attempt to point out potential red flags when considering which estate sale company you may be hiring to host your sale. This comes from over 14 years of experience in the industry, and let’s just say that we’ve seen a lot of questionable activity from other estate sale companies, many of whom are no longer in business and for a good reason.
- Fly by night companies that have less than five years’ experience, no website presence or lack of transparency as to who owns the company.
- Beware of low commission rates. Companies charging 25% to 30% commission are going to have other “Various” or even “Hidden Fees” such as a labor fee or a marketing fee. You want to hire a company with some real skin in the game, with the goal being to sell as much as they can for the most money they can in the limited time they have to sell it. There is a reason they are so low and it’s not because they are the best and you can be assured, they won’t make you as much money. Why are they so low? Desperate for business? Hidden fees?
- Any company willing to quote a commission rate sight unseen.
- Companies that have no liability insurance. Any legitimate business should carry liability insurance.
- Companies that have poor online reviews and lack of references.
- Companies that do not collect Texas Sales Tax. Are they a real company?
- Companies that offer a free haul-off at the conclusion of every sale. This is a conflict of interest. If they have a storefront or an online store, it’s likely you will find some of your items in their store. Be cautious of anything offered “for free”.
- Companies that have a full time storefront, thrift store, antique shop or are dealers.
- Companies that allow dealers to come in and price items for them and then allow the dealers to purchase the items they priced pre-sale. Yes, it happens!
- Companies that pay their staff in merchandise from the estate sale. The client in turn may not get paid for those items.
- Companies that charge a commission on found U.S. face value currency.
- Quantity of sales. There is a BIG difference between quantity and quality in conducting estate sales. If a company’s goal is to have as many sales as possible on any given weekend, when would they ever have time to research the best prices for your contents?