Answers
The questions people call and ask
Written for whoever is holding the keys — an executor, a family member, or the realtor who cannot list a house until somebody empties it. Every page answers its question in the first paragraph.
01Estate sale, auction, or buyout — which one for which situation?Which of the three fits your situation: an on-site estate sale, an auction, or an outright cash buyout of the contents. What each does, and what it leaves you to deal with.Read the answer02What happens to what doesn't sell?The contents that do not sell at an estate sale are cleared, not left for the family to deal with. What the clearout covers and what the house looks like at the end of it.Read the answer03Executor's checklist for clearing a parent's homeThe order to do things in when you are the executor clearing a parent's house — what to secure first, what not to throw away, and where valuing the contents fits.Read the answer04How do you get a house listing-ready after a death in the family?Contents out first, then cosmetic work. The order to get an inherited property from full to photographed, and why doing it the other way round wastes the work.Read the answer05What happens after you call?The sequence from the first phone call to an empty house: what we ask, what the walkthrough is for, what you decide and when, and what you are not committing to by calling.Read the answer06We found paperwork and photographs — what should we do with them?What to do with documents, letters and family photographs turned up while clearing an estate — what to set aside, what should never go in a skip, and when to decide.Read the answer07Do I need an appraisal before selling?A formal appraisal is needed when a third party requires a number on paper. To decide what to do with a houseful of contents, a valuation walkthrough is the thing you actually need.Read the answer
Not the question you have?
Call and ask it. The walkthrough is free and carries no obligation to sell through us.