Estate Sales with Mike Judkins

Michelle: Welcome once again to Decluttering 55 Plus with Michelle Passoff. I’m Michelle Passoff. This is the place to come for news you can use to get things done in life without anything in the way on the road ahead. Piles of papers, overstuffed closets, a crowded garage. They’re all things you ordinarily think of when someone says it’s time to clean your clutter.

Michelle: We call that conventional clutter, but that’s not the only kind of clutter. As time goes by, there are things that don’t Need to get done, but they’re confounding and confronting. They’re cluttered because they slow you down and simply stop you in your tracks. Deciding on the best diet and exercise program to optimize your health.

Michelle: Writing your memoir, digital decluttering. Choosing a place to live or what to do next are all clutter when they bewilder you and get pushed aside for another day, or better yet, never. Getting your financial and legal papers in order and deciding on your own funeral arrangements can stump you, to say the least.

Michelle: But, address them you must if you want to keep the future free and clear of new and unimagined adventures. Decluttering 55 plus with Michelle Passoff is a place to come where you take things out from under the carpet and put them on the table to discuss, learn, get inspired, get in action and get things done.

Michelle: Today, we’re going to talk about one of the things you can do to prepare for a move, whether to a smaller home, new city, different community, and that’s having an estate sale. If you think you have to be Rockefeller or Vanderbilt to have an estate sale, think again. Anyone who wants to sell the entire contents of their home qualifies.

Michelle: I owned and operated an estate sale company in Tampa, Florida for about 14 years. So estate sales are a topic I’m fluent in and it’s, uh, how I know our next guest. We have with us today, Mike Judkins, the president and CEO of EstateSales. org, the leading website for people who want to sell the entire contents of a home or buy from people who are letting go.

Michelle: Welcome Mike Judkins.

Mike Judkins: Thanks, Michelle. I’m very glad to be here. Excited to talk.

Michelle: Yeah. Tell everybody exactly what an estate sale is.

Mike Judkins: Yeah. So that’s a interesting question. Basically, uh, it’s when you need to either downsize, um, or, you know, there could be some kind of life event, um, such as, you know, uh, unfortunately some of us get divorced sometimes and it’s kind of like a court appointed sale, um, or, you know, uh, someone may have passed away and you need to kind of liquidate the contents of a home.

Mike Judkins: Typically, um, And basically, uh, what happens is a usually a professional what we call in a state liquidator or a state sale company will be hired by the, uh, the owner of the items in question, they’ll come into the home and they’ll stage everything basically making it look like a, like a retail store inside a home where everything’s priced and catalogued and then they’ll, you know, Advertise it to the public in a variety of ways, and people will typically, you know, show up at the appointed day and time, and, um, you’ll typically start with a big long line of people, and you’ll admit the people into the home, um, in, in batches, and they’ll, they’ll shop, uh, throughout the home, and add, you know, whatever they’re interested in, and, um, Check out.

Mike Judkins: And it’s usually like a two or three, maybe a four day process, just depending on how much items are in the home.

Michelle: Yeah, that sounds, it sounds like fun to shop at an estate sale, but we’re talking about letting go today. So let’s focus on, uh, that aspect of it. When you go to estate sales. org, what is estate sales.

Michelle: org?

Mike Judkins: So yeah, estate sales. org is a few things. It’s primarily, it’s, it started off as an advertising venue for estate sales. So, um, we, we essentially allow the estate liquidators or the companies to advertise their estate sales, uh, to the public. So, um, you know, the, the company themselves will advertise the event.

Mike Judkins: And then the public will, um, typically search for sales in their area, or they’ll get a daily email of sales near them based on their their geography. But so not only that, we also provide a directory of a stay. So currently, Companies, uh, that you can kind of browse, uh, look at their credentials, how long they’ve been in business.

Mike Judkins: Um, what kind of past sales they’ve done, um, you know, view kind of testimonials and everything like that. So it’s basically like a, uh, online phone book for, uh, matching you up with an estate sale company in your area. And you can, you know, submit a request for contact, um, you know, And, you know, we’ll kind of route that to the best companies that we feel are in your area.

Mike Judkins: Um, and so that’s kind of, I think, the relevant part to the discussion today. But, um, there’s also, I will say, uh, an online estate sale marketplace. So more and more we’re seeing, uh, estate sales actually being conducted sort of in a virtual fashion. Um, and you can actually kind of, you know, it’s almost like being in a state sale from the comfort of your own home.

Mike Judkins: Um, and you can go online on a state sales dot org and purchase items from real estate sales, um, across the U. S. And even, um, bid on things. And we have an auction system on there as well. So it’s, it’s all of those things kind of wrapped up into one online website.

Michelle: So you can have things shipped to you from across the country, even then, if I’m hearing you right.

Mike Judkins: Yes. Um, we, we had, uh, companies will do it in a variety of ways. So obviously stuff like couches and large items, um, you know, most time won’t make sense to ship, but, um, a lot of companies actually will conduct the virtual sale. Um, and then have an in person pickup. So that helps out if, if, for example, um, you know, there’s an issue with, uh, the HOA not allowing the in person sales or any, any number of reasons.

Mike Judkins: Um, so, uh, yeah, it just kind of comes in. As a, as a useful feature and, um, makes it pretty fun too, because you can actually, um, just sort of browse, browse these things online and, and purchase, yeah, from the comfort of your own home.

Michelle: If you’re looking for an estate sale company to, um, divest of everything in your house, what do you think are the top criteria people should use to select one?

Mike Judkins: Um, I think prior experience is, um, definitely a factor. Um, and then just when interviewing them, um, you want to make sure they’re not, you know, there’s a couple of red flags, like, um, you want to make sure they’re not trying to buy everything from you, you know, and then sell it because, um, that’s, that could be an indicator that you’re just trying to like, you know, Uh, turn, turn a profit on you not being aware of what items are worth.

Mike Judkins: Um, you get the lowest

Michelle: price for everything in that case. There are some companies that are buyout companies, but that’s not an estate sale company.

Mike Judkins: No, that’s, that’s correct. Yeah. So, um, but yeah, I would just, Um, and, and don’t necessarily I would not recommend going with whoever’s like the cheapest, um, because, you know, it’s kind of, uh, you know, for a company that has done a lot of sales and has a lot of built up knowledge about pricing and, and, um, and establishing a buyer base, um, you know, that that’s going to be worth.

Mike Judkins: You know that extra commission. Um, so definitely you want to make sure you want to ask them how many buyers Are on their marketing lists. Um, and that’s definitely one huge factor that can affect You know how successful your sale is Um, if they’re on estate sales. org, you kind of already know that they are in a, in a platform, an online platform that, that reaches a lot of people.

Mike Judkins: But you also want to just, uh, ask them, um, what other means that they use to, to advertise your sale as well.

How

Michelle: long in advance of like, uh, most of the time, I guess people are selling their house when they do an estate sale, they’re moving out completely. How long in advance of, should you do. An estate sale before you sell the house after you sell the house.

Michelle: Do you have a standard for that?

Mike Judkins: Yes. Um, uh, typically the house will be, uh, contracted with a realtor for sale around the same time as the estate sale is being planned. So the, the kind of goal is to clear out the house. Prior to it being sold. Yeah. So you’ll typically see the sale occurring. Um, you know, possibly a month or a few weeks, you know, before the, the home is actually, um, on the market or, or, or, or being sold.

Mike Judkins: Um, so yeah, we typically see it take place prior to, to when the, You know, home is, uh, is, uh, listed or sold.

Michelle: It’s a lot less stressful that way. Nothing worse than having to do a sale when you have a deadline for being out. And then the idea, I guess, for my listening audiences, less stress is better. So planning in advance would, um, be the action for the day, I think.

Michelle: Leaving yourself as much time as possible.

Mike Judkins: Definitely. And most companies will want at least a month’s notice. Um, they, they, it will be very difficult to. Find a company and your choices will be limited. Um, if uh, you know, you’re just kind of needing it next week, for example Um, so I always recommend actually starting that search Um, you know, maybe even three months in advance because a lot of these companies especially the busier ones um will need that amount of notice to to kind of go in and evaluate things and price and And organize the marketing and all of that

Michelle: Presumably, the owner of the house doesn’t live there anymore, or do you, uh, squirrel them in a corner so that they’re, uh, not in the way during the sale?

Michelle: How does that work?

Mike Judkins: Yes, um, you know, a lot of people have emotional attachments to their items, and so the, the, uh, Best practice within the industry is to not have the owner present, um, just because, you know, there’s an emotional factor there that, um, you know, can, can be tough on some people and, um, you know, it’s just kind of easier, smoother if.

Mike Judkins: You know, the, the owners or, or, you know, the inheritance, um, are not there. Um, because, uh, you know, it, it’s just easier that way emotionally. And, and, um, you know, just kind of, you don’t want, uh, so, you know, the, the client say, wait, wait a minute, I don’t want to sell that. You know, someone has it and it’s just like a bad experience for.

Mike Judkins: For the, you know, buyers and, and the company and everybody. So

Michelle: we had one client who, uh, was there while the sale was going on and she, uh, piped up about how she bought this and that at the Goodwill. That was not, that was not a good practice. So you have to hold yourself back and go have a day at the spa before, while your sale is being run, don’t you think?

Mike Judkins: That is a great idea.

Michelle: How many days should you anticipate that the sale will run?

Mike Judkins: I mean, most commonly we see, um, like a three day weekend. Um, but it, it all just depends on how many items are in the sale. Um, you know, some of them are four days and some of them are actually split up into multiple weekends, if it’s large, a

Michelle: lot of stuff

Mike Judkins: with a lot of stuff.

Mike Judkins: But typically we’ll see kind of like a Friday, Saturday, Sunday, that’s the most common, um, you know, uh, length of time I would say that we see.

Michelle: And what happens to all the stuff after the sale?

Mike Judkins: So, um, if there’s items left over after the sale that were not sold during those three days, they typically will go to one or two places.

Mike Judkins: Um, they’ll either be, uh, taken to to donate, um, at a local charity organization, um, Or, um, you know, they’ll be thrown out, um, you know, some, sometimes, uh, the company will hire like a dumpster service, um, so anything left over a very, very low value that no one’s no one wants. And, and, you know, it’s, maybe it’s a, uh, uh, some.

Mike Judkins: You know, use toothbrush or something. So that goes in the trash. Um, they might’ve thrown that in the trash

Michelle: before the estate sale. Possibly. Yes. Yes. How much money would you expect you that you’re going to earn from an estate sale? Is it worth it to even bother?

Mike Judkins: It’s definitely worth it. Um, you know, if you have the normal amount of.

Mike Judkins: You know, accumulated items from a lifetime. It’s definitely going to be worth it to, um, hire a company and, um, companies typically, uh, will take a commission of the amount sold that, uh, most commonly we see around 35 to 40 percent in, in that general range and the typical estate sale, um, is, uh, Ballpark does around 10, 000 worth of sales during, during the entire thing.

Mike Judkins: That’s just a, a, a ballpark. I mean, there, there’s definitely outliers, um, that make quite a bit more or less than that. Um, so, you know, I guess if you were to take your average sale, um, you’re looking at making, you know, if it’s like a 10, 000 sale, um, You know, six or 7, 000. Yeah.

Michelle: So, um, but you might say to yourself, Oh my God, 6, 000.

Michelle: But I paid 36, 000. You probably have to let go of expectations to a certain degree when you run an estate sale.

Mike Judkins: Yeah, because you know, I always say like the things that you may think are valuable when you purchased it just might not be in demand right now. Um, and, um, it’s just, um, You know, a sign of the time and some things I mean, could could go the other way.

Mike Judkins: I mean, you may have purchased something for for less and now it’s very collectible or something like that. But, um, it is definitely true that, um, sometimes, you know, uh, expectations have to be, um, you know, Reset or tempered, um, because that, that, that old couch you might have paid 5000 for, um, you know, is, is not worth a lot of money just because in general furniture, unless it’s, it’s some kind of collectible like mid century modern or something, it depreciates quite a bit.

Mike Judkins: And it’s just like a car, right? It’s like when you drive it off a lot, it kind of just, you know, you’re losing the value there. So, um, yeah. It’s just, uh, stuff like that, um, you need to kind of, um, take the company’s, uh, guidance on and, um, uh, so that, you know, you can maximize the, the amount of items sold and not be left over with something because it was, you know, priced too high.

Mike Judkins: It’s, it’s

Michelle: almost like making money on a state sale is the bonus. The real goal. Is to move out. The real goal is to empty a house, have it ready for showing if you’re selling it. And, uh, not so much wary about, uh, nickel and diming, but to let go of stuff in a sensible way, cause it’s ecological not to throw stuff out if you don’t have to.

Michelle: And, uh, somebody who needs something or wants something at a reduced price is more than happy to take it off your hands. So it works out for everybody in the end.

Mike Judkins: That’s a very good point. Um, a lot of the times you’re correct. The goal is to actually sell them the asset that’s worth the most, which is the house.

Mike Judkins: And, um, obviously, uh, most of the time people don’t want to buy the house full of all of the stuff. It shows

Michelle: much better without, uh, exactly. You know, your junk draw.

Mike Judkins: Exactly.

Michelle: Well, I think that’s all we have time for today. So we’re going to have to wrap this conversation up in a moment. My recommendation to all of our listeners interested in doing an estate sale now or down the road is to get out there and visit a few sales, visit estate sales.

Michelle: org to locate sales going on in your communities this weekend and see what you can expect. Besides, it’s always a boatload of fun to shop at an estate sale because you never know what you’re going to find. So everybody have a great clutter free day.