Pros can help get rid of your surplus stuff

Whether because of death, downsizing or divorce — or heck, you want to chuck it all and become a Buddhist monk — sometimes you need to unload a household’s worth of things. Estate sales are the easiest way to do that. At most events, an estatesale company presides over a two- or three-day jumbo tag sale with the goal of selling the home’s entire contents. Furniture, art, clothing and more are fair game. You’ll also make some money — though not as much as you might want.

You want a company that will widely advertise your sale to bring in lots of buyers. The best outfits employ staffers with appraisal skills who can tell whether Uncle Bob’s wingback chair is a valuable antique and determine whether those family diamonds are really cubic zirconia.

To find an estate seller, start by checking with professionals who deal with death and downsizing: real estate brokers, attorneys, assisted-living facilities. Some companies advertise membership in the American Society of Estate Liquidators (www.aselonline.com) and the National Estate Sales Association (www.nesa-usa.com). No certification program exists for estate sellers, but membership at least confirms that an outfit sees its work as a profession, not a side business.

Ask companies how long they’ve been operating and how frequently they host sales. Wellestablished, busy outfits seem less likely to rip you off than a new business or an inexperienced individual. Check out how they advertise on sites devoted to estate sales or on others such as Craigslist. Do its ads contain catchy verbiage and good photos of items for sale? Drop by a few sales to see how each estate-sale organizer operates.

Schedule in-person meetings with companies you like. Show prospective sellers which items you want to get rid of and which you want to keep. (If you’re liquidating an entire household, remove anything you want to keep before the sale.) Then ask each company for a written proposal indicating how it calculates fees and estimating your earnings from the sale.

Most estate-sale companies come in before the event to set prices on items, though a few sell everything on a “makeme-an-offer” basis. No matter the approach, almost all liquidators take a cut of each item’s selling price. In the Puget Sound area, Checkbook’s undercover shoppers found that the cut ranges from 30 to 50 percent, depending on the company, with most hovering between 30 and 40 percent. Some companies charge extra for clearing out the property after the sale, which might include housecleaning and junk hauling; others include these tasks in their fees. Get a contract that includes details on all fees and commissions.

After you’ve hired a company, it will sort, appraise, photograph and price items, arranging everything by room and by type, sometimes on tables or racks they provide. To increase profit on some things, skilled estate-sale companies employ or call in appraisers to value the higher-ticket items. Estate sellers sometimes send individual pieces of art or rare antiques to auctions if they think they will net more cash.

Don’t throw things out before the liquidator sorts through the merchandise in the house. Buyers will swoop up just about anything, from unopened bottles of juice to beat-up pans. Estate sellers usually tag and try to sell it all; they don’t want to accidentally dispose of some other guy’s treasure. One pro told us about finding a Louis Vuitton 1920s trunk in a dumpster behind an estate where she had organized a sale. It sold for more than $1,000.

However, manage your profit expectations. Most items won’t sell for anything close to the prices you or your relatives paid even decades ago. Tastes have shifted away from the stuff your parents and grandparents owned (dark wood furniture, china, silver), and it may no longer be popular or valuable. Some items — Midcentury Modern furnishings, gold — have held their value. Estate sellers set prices at close to what they think items are worth. Then, as the weekend (or day) progresses, they will slash them.

If the estate includes valuable jewelry, liquidators should bring a locking glass case. Good sellers will display merchandise to make it look appealing, but don’t expect an HGTV-like makeover of the home.

Steer clear of the house during the sale. Because most sales occur after death or illness, it might be hard to separate your feelings from the mountains of stuff you are selling. Sales generally take place on weekends, often starting Thursday and ending Sunday. Sometimes buyers queue up early in the morning; some liquidators hand out numbers, deli-counter style, to manage volume.

After the sale, if you’ve hired a company to completely empty the property, you should return to a broom-clean house. Staffers will dispose of unsold items by donating them to charity, throwing them away or selling them.

Most companies disperse funds within two to three weeks, but get a payment deadline in your contract.