Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's)

Since every customer is unique and their situation different, we work on a percentage basis and there are no additional costs for any of our services. Reach out to us today for a customized quote and to discuss your needs and challenges.

Ideally, yes. However, in certain cases, we will make exceptions and conduct a sale with items blocked off into a room. Large items that you wish to keep but can’t remove prior to the sale aren’t an issue, but it’s the smaller items we worry about. We don’t want to sell something you wish to keep!

Yes and no. Yes—everything that you wish to keep should be removed from the home or stored in a place that can be locked away from the public. No-keep everything else because people will buy anything from old wrapping paper rolls to car care supplies. Everything in your home has value.

We encourage charitable donations, but we hope you will wait until after the sale to make these donations. If your sale is highly successful and you have little to donate in terms of items, we are confident that your charity would welcome a monetary contribution.

2-3 weeks before the sale – Scheduling and advertising for your sale.
3 or 4 days prior to the sale starts – Our team will come in, price and stage all of your items for the sale.
Sale is typically run from Friday through Sunday of the previously agreed upon weekend.
Charity pickup typically takes place on the Tuesday or Wednesday following the sale. This gives you a day to go through unsold items prior to the charity picking them up. We will work alongside the charity at this time to make sure all items are removed and you’re left with a completely cleaned out home. The charity may not remove every last item, but we will. You’re home will be left completely empty.
You will then receive the final sale numbers and a check within ten business days of the conclusion of the sale.

Our sales staff will first walk through the home to determine the best traffic flow for customers to browse and check out. We supply an array of folding display tables and tablecloths and may even arrange your furniture and accessories to increase interest. Once we have gone through all the cabinets, closets and drawers, we will group like items, store any sensitive items and tag each item for sale.

We will do all we can to make sure you trust us to handle your sale with integrity, transparency and respect. We do ask that all interested parties remain off the property during the sale. Selling your possessions or those of a loved-one can be incredibly emotional and stressful, that’s why you hire professionals to manage it. We will be busy with customers and security, so we will not be able to give you updates, but we will keep you in touch with the primary contact person for the home at regular intervals before the sale, on the evening immediately before the sale and then within 24 hours after the sale to make sure you are comfortable with how we are handling your treasures.

Yes. To remain competitive and to ensure a successful and complete estate sale, we price items fairly and consider all fair offers. You can be sure we will not give anything away and we do ask our homeowners tolist all non-negotiable priced items for us well before the sale.

Absolutely. We encourage having flyers at the sale, as we get tons of people who essentially treat this as an open house. We collect lots of potential buyer’s information and hand it over to the agent at the end of the sale.

We work on a percentage basis, and there are ever any out of pocket costs to our clients. Our percentage varies depending on the scope of work, quality/quantity of items, and other logistics. It is typically around 35% but every sale is different. We try to make the percentage as fair as possible for both parties. In addition to advertising, researching, and properly staffing the sale, Certified Estate Sales goes above and beyond to make sure every home looks as presentable as possible, spending a lot of time staging and setting up. While sometimes a company may offer to do the sale at a lower percentage, this by no means guarantees more to the estate.