What To Do With All Your Stuff and More

Congratulations! You’ve decided to sell your house and move!

Now what?

If you’ve lived in your home for a long time you’ve probably got a lot of stuff.  Thinking about getting everything organized and cleaned up, and also preparing your home for sale can be completely overwhelming.

• What do we do with everything?

• Are some of these things valuable?

• Where can I donate old clothing and furniture?

• How do I get rid of old household items that no one seems to want?

• Where do I start?

Don’t worry!  We are here to help!

We offer start to finish real estate solutions for all kinds of people:

• Elderly people

• Busy professionals

• Trustees and executors

• People who are downsizing

• People moving out of the area

• Family members living out of the area

• People who are physically challenged

• People moving into age restricted housing and care facilities

• Hoarders

Whether the stuff is yours or items left behind by a loved one, before we begin getting your home ready for market, we need to get everything cleaned up and organized.  We are here to help you get organized and cleaned up so we can get your home on the market and get it sold for the highest possible price!

Cleaning and organizing a house full of personal belongings can be overwhelming for anyone, especially loved ones left behind.  This task can turn into a full time job which can make it impossible for elderly people, working professionals or loved ones living out of the area. Others just don’t have the time, the skills, the availability or the desire to do this exhausting and emotionally draining work.  This is why we now offer a service where we manage everything from start to finish.

We coordinate effectively with family trust and probate attorneys, extended family members and financial planners.  We also create and manage comprehensive, easy to read timelines for our clients. We share these timelines with the client and update them weekly so everyone knows exactly what’s happening, what’s been accomplished and what is left to do.

All of this is included with our typical real estate fees to assist with this type of work (and list the property for sale).  We provide top notch, “full service” real estate services:

• Review all statutory and seller disclosure

• Prepare property for sale and managing property improvements such as new paint and carpet, landscaping and necessary repairs

• Arrange for property inspection reports

• Arrange for each property to be professionally staged

• State of the art online marketing and advertising

• Professional photography and video

• High level negotiation of sale including price and terms

• Managing all details during escrow

• Successful close of escrow

We also offer a program where we pay for everything along the way and are reimbursed at close of escrow.

Over the past couple of years, we have had numerous opportunities to help trustees and older homeowners who are downsizing clean up their homes and get properties ready for sale.  We now feel that we have become “experts” in this and have the resources to help homeowners and trustees get organized, cleaned up and get the house on the market.

There are a couple of ways this service can work:

Option 1

• This scenario is for homes where there may be a lot of stuff, but most everything is of little to no monetary value.

• You go through the house and take the things you want, including items that are significant to you:

  • Family heirlooms

  • Photographs

  • Momentos

  • Paperwork

  • Furniture

  • Clothing

• Once you have the items you want, you leave everything else exactly where it is including furniture, clothing, kitchenware, appliances, items in the house, in the garage and in the backyard that you wish to discard.  Once you’ve taken the items you want, you give us a key to the house and we take we take care of everything else.  We arrange to have items auctioned or donated or given away.  We get rid of everything inside the house, in the garage and in the yard.  Since we’ve been doing this for our clients, we have helped people find homes for collectibles, sell antiques, donate furniture, sell collectible cars, find homes for pets, and more.  We are extremely resourceful and we have deep networks of help.

• Once the house is empty, we go on to prepare the house for sale as indicated above including (as necessary) repairs and improvements, new paint, carpet, landscape, etc.

• Our goal is to get your home sold for the highest possible price so that you and your family can realize maximum benefit from the sale of your property.  We also want to make it is easy and as painless as possible for you along the way.

Option 2

• We arrange for an outside service who specializes in going through personal belongings and separating everything out into four main categories:

  1. Items that need your attention (i.e. photos, important documents, mementos, heirlooms, etc.)

  2. Items of monetary value – which they then arrange to sell or send to be auctioned, depending on how valuable they are or appear

  3. Items that are in good shape but of little value, such as older furniture which is donated to Salvation Army or other charitable organizations

  4. Items of no value that must be disposed of

• Our team of organizers will prepare a bid to complete the job and conduct an online auction to sell the items of value (similar to Ebay).  Once you approve their bid, they bring all necessary help to sort, move, sell, auction, donate and dispose of everything in the house. Depending on the size of the home and how much stuff there is, they might need approx. 80-120 hours to go through everything.  We have teams of people at our disposal so this process is much faster than you think, and much faster than you can do yourselves – guaranteed.

• Once everything is cleaned up, sold or disposed of, we come in to make improvements, prepare the house for sale and ensure it is sold for the highest possible price.

There are, of course, innumerable additional considerations and small steps that are not listed here which we also manage in concert with you, the homeowner or executor and all of the people we need to each task along the way.  We manage and/or do everything that needs to get done and keep you well informed along the way. You will approve everything before it gets done. Many of the third party services can be billed to escrow and paid at the time of sale.

We help sort and organize all kinds of personal property:

• Furniture

• Antiques

• Artwork

• Collectables

• Photographs

• Paperwork

• Clothing

• Books

• Automobiles

• Tools, machines and garage items

• Everything else . . . even pets!!

We manage your estate sale using state of the art online auctions – like Ebay where people locally and across the country can bid on items so you get top dollar!

We assist with the following activities:

• Sort valuable items

• Catalog items and lots of items

• Photograph all items

• Post photos online for auction

• Distribute items

• Collect proceeds

• Donate remaining items to charity and provide receipts

• Haul and dispose of any remaining items

We also fully prepare your property for sale including these important tasks:

• Arrange for necessary repairs

• Paint interior and exterior (if necessary)

• Improve or freshen up the landscaping

• Replace carpet and/or flooring

• Pre sale property inspections

  • Home

  • Termite

  • Roof

  • Chimney

  • Others as needed

We can arrange for consultations regarding 

• tax planning

• capital gains

• estate taxes

List property for sale including:

• Prepare and and personally review all required state and local disclosure, reports and compliance items

• Comprehensive, cutting edge marketing and advertising

• Professional photography

• Professional property marketing videos

• Negotiate best terms and price for property so seller or their trust receive the highest possible price

• Review purchase agreement with clients and their support team including attorneys, family members, etc.

• Manage transaction to successful completion and close of escrow

• Post sale follow up to manage any and all “loose ends”

We know from experience that communication is the most effective tool we have when taking over large jobs like this.

We provide constant communication. We prepare comprehensive custom timelines that we update and send weekly for review.  We provide professional, patient, and thorough review of every aspect of the process. We’ll go over it as many times or as often as you need.  There are no “silly” questions. The more you know and understand about how the process works and what to expect, the smoother the process becomes.