Step 1: Understand the Value of each Item

Empowering yourself with knowledge of your items should be your first priority.  Taking inventory of all the items you want to sell and finding proper valuations or estimates is important to understanding the value of your assets and enables you to make informed decisions about your sale.  

Understanding the value of your assets and inventory will help you determine what to include in your sale and what to expect from the sale.  This can be done by hiring an appraiser to come to the house for $150-300/hr can be prohibitively expensive.  You can spend some time researching online for comparables or, when faced with a lack of online information, consult a specialist at an auction house who may not provide the most objective valuation for your inventory.  Furthermore, specialists normally respond to item inquiries if the item is over a minimum value and, should they respond at all, often take weeks before getting back to you. 

Step 2: Choose the Sale Location

There are many options to consider when preparing your estate sale.  But the location is going to be where the items are located.  Save yourself the effort and expense of moving items.  Ideally you want to select a location that is comfortable for people to visit and pick up items away from the street traffic on your driveway.  And if the sale takes place at your home, you also want to ensure that it is safe for you and your family particularly if you are dealing with walk-in strangers.  Having a friend or family member with you is always recommended since you will not be able to talk to strangers and keep an eye on the inventory if it is laid out over a large area.  Common sense is the most important aspect here and staying safe.

Step 4: Create the Sale Catalog

Organizing the sale and the catalog requires photographing, describing, measuring, tagging, and noting the condition of each item.  This is obviously not needed if you are selling at a garage sale or yard sale; however, keeping records of your items is highly recommended with any sale.  

Creating a catalog is very useful in keeping such records and utilizing a spreadsheet or an application is helpful to all sellers in logging and recording the necessary information.

Downsyzor Inventory Template Spreadsheet

Complete information about each item is necessary if you want to address the buyers’ needs. Missing key information will deter buyers and result in customer inquiries that are easily avoidable.  As a seller, providing buyers the baseline information required to make a purchasing decision, reduces the amount of time attending to the standard inquiries and ultimately saves you time and effort.  It is also very likely that potential buyers may forego inquiring further because they don’t want the hassle.

Step 5: Advertise the Sale

Promoting the sale is done through the use of email marketing, word of mouth, features highlighting individual items, online or community notices, radio, television etc

Marketing is necessary in attracting buyers and key to a successful sale; however, any form of advertising is expensive and requires you to find your target audience.  You might also be discouraged by how expensive this can be while being overwhelmed by the number of competing downsizing sales who are likely to sell the same items to your target audience.  

Your target audience are buyers who are interested in estate items.  This can be accomplished through a Channel Partner who already has access to this type of audience. 

Partnering with an established auction company with thousands of buyers on their client list is probably the best marketing strategy.  But this may be difficult to accomplish because that list is protected and not likely to be shared.

Step 6: Customer Inquiries and Negotiations

All sales require attending to client inquiries and negotiations.  Whether it is impromptu questions asked on-site and in-person at a garage sale or electronically through email, customer inquiries pertaining to any item in the sale can be a time consuming process.  It requires constant attention and timely responses to keep the buyer interested. 

Our research has shown the average number of message exchanges between a buyer and seller for an item listed on an online classifieds site.  An average of 18-49 exchanges is needed to complete a transaction.  When you have over 50 items with several interested buyers, it can be an overwhelming experience to track all conversations simultaneously. 

Most, if not all inquiries can be eliminated by providing the proper information in the listing. Negotiations can be completely avoided if you select the proper format. 

50% of the inquiries are not actually about the item but about shipping or meeting.  Therefore, good information and descriptions are key to saving time and effort throughout the sale.

Step 7: Viewings and Showings

Once a buyer has shown interest they will customarily want to set a time and place to meet and view the item. In addition to the time spent on communication you now have to allocate more time and expense to meet the person.  During a yard sale, this is normally avoidable but with online sales, meeting customers is the only way to move forward with the transaction unless you are a business. 

Person to person meetings are perceived as higher risk; this is even more important with the current COVID-19 global pandemic and other physical dangers.  You must also be aware of scams and petty crimes.  With that in mind, It is usually a good idea to meet during the day at a place and time where there are many people.  Bringing someone with you is usually recommended. 

It is also not a good idea to invite strangers to your home as you will reveal the location of the item.  This is particularly the case when involving items of high value.  Common sense will go a long way in ensuring the safety of you and your loved ones. 

Many potential buyers are only interested in browsing; tire kickers are plentiful and there is no guarantee that they will make the purchase even after you have taken the time and effort in showing the item.  Try to feel out the buyers’ intention before physically meeting to save time and effort. 

Step 8: Collect Payments

Congratulations! Someone is interested in purchasing one or more of your items.  Now is the time to consider how you will accept payment.  Cash is convenient but usually limited in face to face transactions.  Online payment forms are convenient for the buyer but may not be secure for the seller. 

Credit cards are the most common method of payment and convenient for the buyer as their cardholder terms will protect them from fraud.  However, accepting a credit card exposes you as a merchant to that same fraud.  Scammers can easily charge back the charge and deny the purchase if you do not have the proper terms and conditions of the sale agreed to by the buyer.  Having a fraud detection system in place is crucial in avoiding scams. Getting the buyer to tap or enter their pin into the terminal will significantly reduce the risk of a chargeback.  Fulfilling online orders are riskier because you don’t know who you are dealing with; it is essential to have the proper Know Your Client (KYC) protocols in place.

Step 9: Packing and Shipping

After an online transaction it is usually required to pack and ship the item to the buyer if they are not local.  You can build in the shipping costs into the price of the item but usually the shipping charges are quoted separately from the sale price.  The buyer will usually be responsible for the costs but in exchange you are responsible for the packing and quoting of the rates.  Giving them multiple options such as express, ground, courier or post is normally preferable for the convenience to all buyers.  

This step requires a lot of time and effort to provide this service to the buyer.  One solution is to assign a shipping agent that will be responsible for all the packing, quoting and shipping.  This shifts the responsibility of all the quoting to the shipper and they can also come and collect the items on behalf of the buyers.  They will likely have more favourable shipping rates at reduced prices. 

Not providing a shipping solution to buyers will significantly limit your reach to local buyers and more than likely eliminate most, if not all, out of state buyers.  Unless you are willing to invest the extra effort yourself, having a good shipping partner is important to a successful sale.