DOWNSIZING AND ESTATE SALES IN ABBOTSFORD

Our process for liquidating a home depends on whether you’re doing an in-home auction or an online auction. Both types of auctions start the same way: 

We would come to your home and begin organizing all of the items for sale. Ideally, you should already have gone over your belongings and decided which items you’re going to keep, sell, or pass on to other relatives. 

Items would be cataloged and priced. We have professional appraising expertise, and we would be able to help you determine a fair market value for each item. Keep in mind that buyers will often try to negotiate a better price. That’s standard custom in an estate sale. You may want to consider selling similar items (e.g. a set of hockey gear) as a bundle so they can be sold faster. 

If you’re doing an online auction, we would take photographs of each item and write up a description so that buyers know what exactly what they’re purchasing. 

Homes have to be staged if you’re conducting the sale on the premises. This means cleaning the property up and moving furniture around so that it’s easier for shoppers to browse. Depending on the layout, we may gather all sale items into a few small areas so that it’s easier to control the crowds and to minimize the risk of theft. 

We would skip this step for online auctions and instead post all sale items on the website so that people can bid. 

The best way to ensure a speedy and successful sale is to advertise it! At West Coast Downsizing Solution, we would advertise the estate sale in Abbotsford Facbook groups, message boards, and community social media feeds. Bargain hunters also subscribe to our newsletter, and they can decide whether or not to travel to Abbotsford for the sale. 

We sometimes also put up signs around the neighborhood to draw in more foot traffic on the day of the event.

Online auctions post a schedule of upcoming and active auctions. It’s a simple matter for bargain hunters to spot your event, save the date, and hop online when the estate sale begins. 

 It’s time to sell the goods! The actual length of a sale varies. Sales be as quick as a weekend or as long as 12 days. Generally speaking, the more items you have for sale, the longer we may need to clear as many items as we can. 

The quality and cost of the items also affects how quickly items are sold. Valuable, rare, or unique items usually go first, with mundane items like books, DVDs, and assorted small knickknacks going last. 

In-home sales are all supervised to reduce the risk of vandalism and theft. Sometimes guests have to set an appointment, while other times they line up at the door and enter on a first-come first-served basis. It depends on the preference of the estate owner. 

In an online auction, the winning bidder has to transfer the money when the auction ends. They’re only given the pickup address once the payment comes through. All pickups are supervised for the security of the homeowner. 

After the sale, the money is talled up and the remaining items are inventoried. The proceeds are divided up among the relevant parties based on the pre-arranged agreement. West Coast Downsizing Solution takes a percentage of the profit from each sale. 

What happens to any leftover items is entirely up to you. Some clients donate their goods to charity, but you’ll have to check if the charity will accept specific items. Otherwise, it just gets sent to the landfill.