Are you bonded? Yes, we did this to give our clients even more confidence in our company.  Most of our employees are family members, members in the Air Force Reserve, family members of Air Force Reservists or close friends.

Are you insured? Yes, again we did this to give our clients more confidence in our company.  The house must have homeowners insurance in effect during the sale.  We even have an added rider on our insurance policy to cover theft.

Do you have any hidden fees? Any fees would be as follows:  our commission, advertising expenses, ebay fees, credit card machine fees, dumpster and clean out fee only if applicable. 

What type of payment can customer's pay with? We accept credit cards, debit cards, checks and good old fashioned cash!  

Am I responsible for any non payment problems with the credit cards or checks?  Nope, that's our problem!  And it's not a big problem at all. 

How are items priced at the sale? We price the items in the home for what they will sell for, not necessarily what they are worth. After all an item is only worth what someone will pay for it.  It does no good for us to price things higher then they will sell for, you'll just be stuck with the item after the sale and that doesn't help you.

Are you negotiable on prices? We are negotiable on prices on the second day of the sale.  We build negotiating room into the price.  My job is to get you the most money as possible for your items.  At the same time making sure the customer is happy with their purchase and wants to come back to my sales.

How many employees will be at the sale?  The number of staff members at your sale will depend on the size of the home.  There will be enough there to efficiently run the sale. 

Our employees are wonderful!  We will help people carry their bags or items to their car.  Often we will help them load larger items.  Sometimes our helping the customer move larger items has made the sale.   Many customers are amazed at the friendliness of our staff and willingness to help them carry their purchases to their cars.

How long have you been doing estate sales?

We started Integrity Estate Sales in June 2004.  Please read our “About Us” page for the story.

Are you an antique dealer with a booth or store? Do you buy items from the sale and sell them on ebay?  We are not antique dealers, we do not have a booth or store.  We sell items on ebay for our clients, if needed.  We believe our purpose is to sell the items to our customers, not to keep them for ourselves.   We believe having a booth or store is a conflict of interest. 

How do you advertise for the sale? 

• Ads in local paper(s)
• Our website and Estatesales.net
• Commercials - at our estate sales for upcoming estate sales
• Flyers to the neighbors telling them they will notice more cars in the area
• Mail postcards to customers without computers

Do you do presales for the family? What about to dealers?  We will do a presale for the family if requested when the contract is signed.  We DO NOT do presales to dealers!  Everyone has a fair chance at our sales.

Should the house be up for sale before or after the estate sale? We recommend listing the house on the market a few days before the sale.  We recommend flyers with information about the house to be available.

How many people come to your sales?

We estimate around 200-400 people come through the sale each day.

What do we (the family) have to do to get ready for the sale? First thing is to remove any items from the home you do not want sold.  Make sure you don’t throw anything away.

How much time do you need to set up for the sale?

In a perfect world we like at least a month to do the set up.  It’s not the set up that necessarily takes the time. It is the research on the items that often takes the most time.

What happens with the more expensive items during the sale? During the set up the more expensive items work their way to the living room where the cash table is.  We also have locking showcases if needed.

Who pays for advertising?  This comes out of the client’s final payout check.

We don't have much in the house to sell, is the sale big enough for an estate sale?  There are times we have other clients who do not have enough for a sale and we combine the sales if possible. 

What happens with the leftover items?  We normally sell between 80%-90% of what is in the house.  At the end of the sale we do not do buyouts because we feel this is a conflict of interest.  We offer clean out services.  We will donate whatever is leftover and do a sweeping of floors and wiping of counters.  When we leave the house is ready to be turned over to new owners.  You do nothing!

Who owns the items at the end of the sale?  I understand that some companies own everything in the house at the end of the sale.  At the end of the sale the family owns the leftover items and they can keep whatever they want, they can donate the items or do whatever they like with the leftovers.  

Can the family members be present at the estate sale?  Family members are always welcome to the sale.  However, we do not recommend it because when my customer’s come into the house they are not walking into mom or dad’s house they are walking into a store to buy, buy, buy!  It can be very hard emotionally on the family members.  Also sales are affected by family members being there, the customers know they are family members and that puts a personal link to the items and they are uncomfortable. 

How do we get our money after the sale?  We will meet with you shortly after the sale, usually within a week.  (As soon as I get some rest after the sale, whew! LOL)  Or we can mail you a check.  Whichever is more convenient for you. 

Does everything do well at estate sales? Or are there items that don't sell well?  Pretty much everything does well at sales.  The only exceptions are some organs and old ironrites, just about everything else will more than likely sell.  There are rare times when I know what a customer will pay and I know the item may do better on eBay.  I will put an item or two on eBay for you.  Let me put a disclaimer in here for my customers who are reading this.  I don’t do this often because I prefer to let you have the good deals!  However, my job is to get as much money for my client as possible.  And I don’t have much time to list items on eBay.

What about cars or other larger items?  Sure!  We’ll sell anything! For items like a car, trailer, snowmobile we will allow people to buy them before the sale.

The house is vacant, when do you release the address?  We do not release the street or address until two days before the sale. 

Is there a fee to have you come and look at our estate?  There is no fee for me to come and look at your estate.  It's a pleasure to come look at the treasures!  We believe there should never be a fee of any kind for a consultation.  I'm told some clients have been charged for this or asked to give up a few items in the household as compensation for the company's time.

Who does the set up?  And who does the pricing?  I personally do the set up with my staff.  I personally do the pricing and research on the items.  I do not contract out the set up or the pricing. 

Do you charge to price the sale that you are running?  I've recently heard about companies charging the client to price the sale that the company is running for the family.  This doesn't make any sense to me.  How can the set up and running of the sale be included in the commission and but not the pricing of the items?  What if the family doesn't pay that extra fee, how do the items in the sale get priced?  
Pricing is included in our commission fee.   

Do you have security cameras in the house during the sale?  No, we do not have security cameras in the house.  We do not feel there is a need for such an expense.  We put items of value in the living room where the cashier is at all times.  

We were told we only have a few items worth selling and we should throw out or donate the rest.  What should we do?  I highly doubt that there are only a few things worth selling in a house.  Perhaps they are looking for less work for themselves which would translate to less money for you.  You would be surprised at how much money the little items can bring in.  The best money making estate sales are ones with common everyday items.  After all there are more people out there looking for common items than there are antique dealers.  The normal estate sale has less than 5% antiques.