Hiring an Estate Sale Company vs Doing It Yourself

The honest answer

Sometimes you don't need us. If you're selling a dozen items out of the garage and you've got a free weekend, run a garage sale. You'll do fine.

But if you're clearing out a whole house? That's different.

What a professional company actually does

We spend a week inside the house before the sale even starts. Sorting, researching, pricing every single item, staging rooms so buyers can see everything. We photograph the best pieces for advertising. We list the sale on EstateSales.NET and social media. We show up at 7 AM on Friday to set up, manage the crowd, handle payments, answer questions all day, and do it again Saturday and Sunday.

After the sale, we clean everything out, coordinate donations, and leave the house empty.

That's a week of full-time work for a team of people.

What DIY looks like

You're doing all of the above yourself. The pricing alone takes days if you do it right. Most people don't do it right. They either price too high and nothing sells, or price too low and leave thousands on the table.

Then there's sale day. You're the cashier, the security, the customer service, the parking attendant, and the person who has to tell someone their $20 offer on a $200 piece is insulting. For three straight days.

And Monday morning you still have a house half-full of unsold stuff to deal with.

The math

A professional company typically charges 30-40% commission on gross sales. Sounds steep until you run the numbers. If we sell $10,000 worth of items, you get $6,000 to $7,000 and you didn't lift a finger.

A DIY sale on the same house might gross $3,000 to $5,000 because of underpricing, weaker advertising, and no-shows. You keep all of it, but you also spent a week of your life and still have cleanup to do.

When to hire

If the house has been lived in for 20+ years. If there's valuable furniture, art, or collections involved. If you're dealing with a death in the family and don't have the energy. If you live out of town and can't be there.

We serve the whole Willamette Valley. Free consultation, no obligation.