A ton of electronic waste and some taxidermy.
May 20, 2024 12:12 PM Subscribe
My aunt passed away recently, and I am the trustee of her estate, so I'm coordinating the clean-out and sale of her home. She has a mix of things worth a little bit of value and things worth nothing at all. I'm not sure who to call or how to sequence things.
I've never done this before -- when my father died he owned close to nothing. My aunt and her partner, by contrast, had a 3,000 square foot house in the Southern California desert, and it contains a mix of the following, much of it covered in an acrid layer of old cigarette smoke:
-Taxidermy (heads of a bison, a bear, a raccoon, various elk and deer, a full beaver and a full mountain lion, various rugs, deer scrotums turned into little handbags
-Taxidermy tools
-Older books (1850-1950) of possible value, newer books of no value
-Xena the Warrior Princess paraphernalia including an unopened GameBoy game
-Unopened Star Wars toys circa 2000-2005, unopened James Bond action figures circa Goldeneye
-Every bit of e-waste they purchased from 1996 onward
-Philately
-Pieces of furniture worth, I'm guessing, somewhere between zero dollars and $600 dollars, including some quirky repurposed old library card catalog type stuff
-A king size bed no one will want
-Zippo lighters, mostly circa 1995-2005, but some from the 60s onward
-Clothing that smells of smoke
-Kitchen stuff of no value
-Depression glass
-An ATV
-Lamps, so many lamps
-An original era Erector Set
-An old Bible with wooden covers from 1870, in terrible condition
-Ringling Brothers circus posters from 1962
-DVDs, CDs, LPs of no real value
-Sheet music books for popular music from the 1970s
-Collectible knives where the knife could never hold an edge enough to use and the handle is actually an eagle made of plaster or something
-Collectibles (you know, old chunks of bridge cables turned into memorial placards, little old pieces of cars, old sextants and compasses, those old commemorative liquor bottles that are ceramic San Francisco cable cars or whatever, eggshells turned into art and lacquered, here and there a decorative plate depicting Mr. Spock, unopened chocolates commemorating the marriage of Charles and Diana, geodes, you get it, thousands of individual pieces of crap)
I just don't know where to start. I have thrown out a ton of certifiable actual garbage already (old pill bottles, some e-waste, etc) and put canned goods in boxes for the food bank.
There are some things that seem appropriate for an estate sale, some things that
seem more appropriate for an estate clean-out service, and some things that seem to have more of a speciality (taxidermy being the main one).
Everything is left to the trust, and the sole beneficiary of the trust has no interest in the actual physical stuff. A few questions and contextual factors:
1. I have some time -- no hard deadlines but would love to get the house on the market by October.
2. This is west of Joshua Tree, so the closest population center is Palm Springs 40 minutes away. There are just not a lot of services around, and the house is 400 yards up a dirt road.
3. I feel it is my responsibility to make money on the things worth money (taxidermy, etc) but overall I see it as a headache that I'd like to get rid of without the trust getting taken advantage of on specific items. (I would give away an ATV for free, for example, unless I look into it and find out the law requires me to get highest possible value for it as trustee.)
4. Would a person normally actually bring specific stuff to a collector, then hire an estate sale for the furniture etc, then an estate clean-out for the bottom-of-the-barrel stuff? Or could I hire a single entity to do the whole shebang?
5. Should I actually try to keep furniture around so that the house looks furnished when it goes to market? If so, does the estate sale happen last?
6. Any advice or things I seem not to be considering? What would you do in my situation?
I've never done this before -- when my father died he owned close to nothing. My aunt and her partner, by contrast, had a 3,000 square foot house in the Southern California desert, and it contains a mix of the following, much of it covered in an acrid layer of old cigarette smoke:
-Taxidermy (heads of a bison, a bear, a raccoon, various elk and deer, a full beaver and a full mountain lion, various rugs, deer scrotums turned into little handbags
-Taxidermy tools
-Older books (1850-1950) of possible value, newer books of no value
-Xena the Warrior Princess paraphernalia including an unopened GameBoy game
-Unopened Star Wars toys circa 2000-2005, unopened James Bond action figures circa Goldeneye
-Every bit of e-waste they purchased from 1996 onward
-Philately
-Pieces of furniture worth, I'm guessing, somewhere between zero dollars and $600 dollars, including some quirky repurposed old library card catalog type stuff
-A king size bed no one will want
-Zippo lighters, mostly circa 1995-2005, but some from the 60s onward
-Clothing that smells of smoke
-Kitchen stuff of no value
-Depression glass
-An ATV
-Lamps, so many lamps
-An original era Erector Set
-An old Bible with wooden covers from 1870, in terrible condition
-Ringling Brothers circus posters from 1962
-DVDs, CDs, LPs of no real value
-Sheet music books for popular music from the 1970s
-Collectible knives where the knife could never hold an edge enough to use and the handle is actually an eagle made of plaster or something
-Collectibles (you know, old chunks of bridge cables turned into memorial placards, little old pieces of cars, old sextants and compasses, those old commemorative liquor bottles that are ceramic San Francisco cable cars or whatever, eggshells turned into art and lacquered, here and there a decorative plate depicting Mr. Spock, unopened chocolates commemorating the marriage of Charles and Diana, geodes, you get it, thousands of individual pieces of crap)
I just don't know where to start. I have thrown out a ton of certifiable actual garbage already (old pill bottles, some e-waste, etc) and put canned goods in boxes for the food bank.
There are some things that seem appropriate for an estate sale, some things that
seem more appropriate for an estate clean-out service, and some things that seem to have more of a speciality (taxidermy being the main one).
Everything is left to the trust, and the sole beneficiary of the trust has no interest in the actual physical stuff. A few questions and contextual factors:
1. I have some time -- no hard deadlines but would love to get the house on the market by October.
2. This is west of Joshua Tree, so the closest population center is Palm Springs 40 minutes away. There are just not a lot of services around, and the house is 400 yards up a dirt road.
3. I feel it is my responsibility to make money on the things worth money (taxidermy, etc) but overall I see it as a headache that I'd like to get rid of without the trust getting taken advantage of on specific items. (I would give away an ATV for free, for example, unless I look into it and find out the law requires me to get highest possible value for it as trustee.)
4. Would a person normally actually bring specific stuff to a collector, then hire an estate sale for the furniture etc, then an estate clean-out for the bottom-of-the-barrel stuff? Or could I hire a single entity to do the whole shebang?
5. Should I actually try to keep furniture around so that the house looks furnished when it goes to market? If so, does the estate sale happen last?
6. Any advice or things I seem not to be considering? What would you do in my situation?
Oof. That’s a lot to contend with.
Contact a local auction house — send some photos of some of the more unique / old items and see if they’d be interested in auctioning some of theitems.
Similarly , there are companies who do this all the time - estate sales, they staff, advertise, and take a percentage. They may give you guidance on stuff they know won’t sell, but in my experience, everything ends up with a price tag.
Assuming you’re hiring a realtor to handle the sale, they’ll bring in furnishings to show or photograph the house when it’s time. Contact the realtor after contracting for the estate sale; they’ll tell you what should stay — tho I’m assuming the furniture smells like smoke, too. Probably best to not have that at the showing.
Good luck.
posted by Silvery Fish at 12:37 PM on May 20 [4 favorites]
Contact a local auction house — send some photos of some of the more unique / old items and see if they’d be interested in auctioning some of theitems.
Similarly , there are companies who do this all the time - estate sales, they staff, advertise, and take a percentage. They may give you guidance on stuff they know won’t sell, but in my experience, everything ends up with a price tag.
Assuming you’re hiring a realtor to handle the sale, they’ll bring in furnishings to show or photograph the house when it’s time. Contact the realtor after contracting for the estate sale; they’ll tell you what should stay — tho I’m assuming the furniture smells like smoke, too. Probably best to not have that at the showing.
Good luck.
posted by Silvery Fish at 12:37 PM on May 20 [4 favorites]
deer scrotums turned into little handbags
Maybe keep these to auction them at next mefi fundraiser? Only half joking.
posted by 15L06 at 1:04 PM on May 20 [12 favorites]
Maybe keep these to auction them at next mefi fundraiser? Only half joking.
posted by 15L06 at 1:04 PM on May 20 [12 favorites]
We are going through this right now. I had a few estate sale companies come out and give us some quotes. The experiences were all over the map. Some places wanted nothing to do with us. Some would only offer to clear out the house to sell. One was our Goldilocks. They were happy to pull out things that would make the most money on Facebook, Craigslist, and at local markets. Then they hosted a "digger's" estate sale. Something more like a garage sale but also with people hoping to score an overlooked gem or two. They take 40% of the income. Then we pay $1,000 plus direct dumpster costs for the clean out.
The sale was this weekend. The sale earned about $2,500. There are still a few things they are hoping to sell on Facebook Marketplace. They are now going through stuff and donating as much as they can to really cut down on trash generated, both in a eco friendly way, and also in a fewer dumpster fees way.
In the end, we'll probably only net a few hundred bucks, but if my sister and I went down there to run a sale/donate stuff/clear it out, we would have probably made less money and spent a ton on flights/hotel/rental cars/vacation time/stress and fighting/etc.
Then we'll sell a major fixer upper of a house and make around $300k, which pays for a lot of months of assisted living and memory care for my folks.
Good luck internet friend, know that prefect is impossible, and done is best. I believe in you.
posted by advicepig at 1:11 PM on May 20 [18 favorites]
The sale was this weekend. The sale earned about $2,500. There are still a few things they are hoping to sell on Facebook Marketplace. They are now going through stuff and donating as much as they can to really cut down on trash generated, both in a eco friendly way, and also in a fewer dumpster fees way.
In the end, we'll probably only net a few hundred bucks, but if my sister and I went down there to run a sale/donate stuff/clear it out, we would have probably made less money and spent a ton on flights/hotel/rental cars/vacation time/stress and fighting/etc.
Then we'll sell a major fixer upper of a house and make around $300k, which pays for a lot of months of assisted living and memory care for my folks.
Good luck internet friend, know that prefect is impossible, and done is best. I believe in you.
posted by advicepig at 1:11 PM on May 20 [18 favorites]
When we hired an estate sale company for my in-laws house, they wanted assurances that there was enough value to make it worth their time and that the things we showed them were not going to be sold separately. Things sell for a fraction of their retail price so we only got a few thousand dollars for entire house full of reasonable nice stuff. Our estate sale folks also took care of (legally) selling a car and some guns separately from the general sale. Plus a lot of things don't sell so you still need to pay for someone to come and junk everything, including most of the furniture.
You'll make more money if you can find someone who specializes in that type of collectible but you have to do the search, shares the photos etc. to see if you can find someone and make a deal. By the time you factor in your time plus the buyer's profit margin, it will only be worth it for really special things. We choose to let the estate sale folks find any specialty people that they thought would buy the more collectible items and then just paid them commission for doing that leg work for us.
Most of what you listed is probably worthless and the rest that seems collectible will not make that much money once you factor in all the time and effort involved in making the sale. My understanding is that you do have a fiduciary duty but only requires reasonable effort.
TLDR: based on my own experience, I recommend interviewing at least three and preferrably five estate sale folks and then pick the one that seems best, and then let them earn their commission by doing all of the hard work. (And plan on having to spend even more to empty the house of everything that didn't sell.)
posted by metahawk at 1:22 PM on May 20 [1 favorite]
You'll make more money if you can find someone who specializes in that type of collectible but you have to do the search, shares the photos etc. to see if you can find someone and make a deal. By the time you factor in your time plus the buyer's profit margin, it will only be worth it for really special things. We choose to let the estate sale folks find any specialty people that they thought would buy the more collectible items and then just paid them commission for doing that leg work for us.
Most of what you listed is probably worthless and the rest that seems collectible will not make that much money once you factor in all the time and effort involved in making the sale. My understanding is that you do have a fiduciary duty but only requires reasonable effort.
TLDR: based on my own experience, I recommend interviewing at least three and preferrably five estate sale folks and then pick the one that seems best, and then let them earn their commission by doing all of the hard work. (And plan on having to spend even more to empty the house of everything that didn't sell.)
posted by metahawk at 1:22 PM on May 20 [1 favorite]
I feel it is my responsibility to make money on the things worth money (taxidermy, etc)
When you sell things (rather than throw them away or give them to Goodwill or something), you are accomplishing two things: 1) Getting those things into the hands of someone who will use and appreciate them, and 2) transferring money from the person who appreciates them to you. If you feel it's your responsibility to achieve both of those goals, then you need to sell the items, but if it's just the first, it might be much less stressful to give items away, such as to a taxidermist or a used book store or a stamp store (none of which are probably making fortunes anyway).
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 1:47 PM on May 20 [1 favorite]
When you sell things (rather than throw them away or give them to Goodwill or something), you are accomplishing two things: 1) Getting those things into the hands of someone who will use and appreciate them, and 2) transferring money from the person who appreciates them to you. If you feel it's your responsibility to achieve both of those goals, then you need to sell the items, but if it's just the first, it might be much less stressful to give items away, such as to a taxidermist or a used book store or a stamp store (none of which are probably making fortunes anyway).
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 1:47 PM on May 20 [1 favorite]
FWIW my in-laws just dealt with a slightly similar situation with selling a house, and their realtor's advice was to clean absolutely everything out, then do any painting/cleaning/carpet cleaning of the house that was deemed advisable/profitable, and THEN they hired one of those firms that stages homes for sale to outfit the whole place with furniture, rugs in various rooms (often covering up more shakey bits of the actual carpet), and so on.
The realtor said that is the way to maximize profit on selling the home and by every indication he is absolutely correct. The place looks absolutely sterling with this new, tasteful furniture and such from the rental place - way better than it every would have with the stuff that was already there.
They have already received a cash offer of $14K more than the asking price but haven't taken that as there look to be even better offers on the table.
So, that approach seems to work.
posted by flug at 3:23 PM on May 20 [5 favorites]
The realtor said that is the way to maximize profit on selling the home and by every indication he is absolutely correct. The place looks absolutely sterling with this new, tasteful furniture and such from the rental place - way better than it every would have with the stuff that was already there.
They have already received a cash offer of $14K more than the asking price but haven't taken that as there look to be even better offers on the table.
So, that approach seems to work.
posted by flug at 3:23 PM on May 20 [5 favorites]
the sole beneficiary of the trust has no interest in the actual physical stuff
So, the sole beneficiary is going to get the money but you're doing all the work? Uh, no.
Are you getting a statutory fee as trustee? Are you enjoying some aspect of rummaging through all the crap? If not, I hereby give you permission to disclaim the whole thing and let the beneficiary and their lawyer take care of it.
My sister and I did all this work for our parents' estates, using services and experts as others have described above, but we and our kids were the beneficiaries. The kids helped too.
If the beneficiary is disabled or otherwise deserving of your unpaid labor, then ignore this answer.
posted by JimN2TAW at 3:46 PM on May 20 [1 favorite]
So, the sole beneficiary is going to get the money but you're doing all the work? Uh, no.
Are you getting a statutory fee as trustee? Are you enjoying some aspect of rummaging through all the crap? If not, I hereby give you permission to disclaim the whole thing and let the beneficiary and their lawyer take care of it.
My sister and I did all this work for our parents' estates, using services and experts as others have described above, but we and our kids were the beneficiaries. The kids helped too.
If the beneficiary is disabled or otherwise deserving of your unpaid labor, then ignore this answer.
posted by JimN2TAW at 3:46 PM on May 20 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: I will be well compensated for doing this work, in material and spiritual terms. I'm not worried about that part.
posted by kensington314 at 4:34 PM on May 20 [7 favorites]
posted by kensington314 at 4:34 PM on May 20 [7 favorites]
It sounds like your aunt lives out in the country so to speak. Did she have any neighbors? Things like the ATV and some of the other things that help when you live on a larger property might be things the neighbor will appreciate and take off your hands.
As for the rest, I would try to find a service to do it all, sell, donate, and trash.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 6:24 PM on May 20 [1 favorite]
As for the rest, I would try to find a service to do it all, sell, donate, and trash.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 6:24 PM on May 20 [1 favorite]
As an example, "Palm Springs Estate Sales" is a local company listing "Palm Springs, Palm Desert, Riverside, Redlands, Moreno Valley, Cathedral City, Rancho Mirage, Yucaipa, La Quinta, Beaumont, Indian Wells, Yucca Valley, Indio, Coachella Valley and Riverside County" as the service area; last month an estate sale was in Fallbrook, almost 100 miles from PS. They'll hold estate auctions, offer whole-house buyouts, manage real estate sales, and other services. Poke around the site. It's a free consultation -- you can turn them down if you don't like the terms.
posted by Iris Gambol at 7:06 PM on May 20 [1 favorite]
posted by Iris Gambol at 7:06 PM on May 20 [1 favorite]
Does the Bible have any family notes or genealogy information in it? If anyone in the family or a history society would have any interest, carefully excise those pages. If it is no condition to be read or even kept (if it has data) as a whole book, then you can bury or burn it. Those are the methods considered appropriate for Bible disposal.
posted by jgirl at 7:25 PM on May 20 [1 favorite]
posted by jgirl at 7:25 PM on May 20 [1 favorite]
Highly recommend working with an estate sales expert. The really good, experienced ones are worth it, even if they take 30-40% commission. They will know how to unload the more obscure stuff. I hired an estate sale company for my parents house. The folks had an upright piano that I couldn't give away, and a 5ft tall, bolted to the floor safe. The estate sale people said, "No problem. We know people". And they did! They staged the whole house with little vignettes (old type writer on the rolltop desk, with a desk lamp and office supplies), set the dining table with table cloth, dishes, glassware, etc. What didn't sell got donated. Could I have made more money selling stuff on my own? Possibly. But time is money, and with a full-time job and my own life, I didn't have the time, or bandwidth to deal with it all. There are somethings in life worth hiring out. And I don't think you are obligated to get the the max dollar amount for the stuff. At the end of the day, things are only worth what someone is willing to give you for it.
I just read this post by someone dealing with a family estate. What she and her sister ended up doing was really intentional, and quite brillant.
posted by socrateaser at 7:33 PM on May 20 [7 favorites]
I just read this post by someone dealing with a family estate. What she and her sister ended up doing was really intentional, and quite brillant.
posted by socrateaser at 7:33 PM on May 20 [7 favorites]
Paper soaks up odors. Books that were in a smoking home probably don't have much value, unless they were kept in a strictly non-smoking room. I'd take any non-smelly ones to local Little Free Libraries.
posted by soelo at 8:41 PM on May 20 [1 favorite]
posted by soelo at 8:41 PM on May 20 [1 favorite]
Mod note: One comment removed. Let's try and avoid suggesting things that the OP has already mentioned and made clear they're aware, thanks!
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 5:33 AM on May 21
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 5:33 AM on May 21
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I would look around for an antique dealer who handles taxidermy (or other collectibles) and invite them to bring their truck and make an offer.
I would not bother keeping furniture around. If your realtor really thinks you need to stage the house for sale, there are places you can rent furniture for that purpose. But you want it out of your hair—you don't want to be dealing with getting rid of furniture during the closing period.
The risk when you try to maximize your income from the sale of contents is that you delay the sale of the house and wind up paying another year's property taxes, not to mention the other carrying costs on a house. There's probably a min/max solution to that problem, but I think in most ways, expediency wins.
Will you be running the estate sale yourself, or hiring a service? If the former, it would pay to stage the house for that so that like things are with like, and you can keep an eye on smaller, high-value stuff.
posted by adamrice at 12:32 PM on May 20 [1 favorite]