Should I be present at my estate or moving sale? I am interviewing with an estate sale company and suddenly the tell me that I cannot be present at the sale. Immediately, I realize that they have something dishonest going on and they either want to price my items too low or hide something they are doing. After all, it is my home and my merchandise. I have every right to be on my property to oversee the estate sale or auction to make sure it is legitimate. So why would they ask me to not be present at my own estate auction or tag sale?
Reason #1: Separating yourself from you or your loved one's collections and personal belongings can be more emotional than you think. I pointed out that a side table had cigarette burns on it while previewing a sale and the lady lovingly looked at the table, smiled and said, "That was on my daddy's side of the bed and those were his cigarette burns. I never had the heart to remove them. They remind me of him."
Our memories are attached to our things in the most unusual ways and we often don't realize that until we start separating ourselves from them.
Reason #2: Professional business practices. You just researched, checked the company out with either references are local agencies such as the Better Business Bureau and are confident they are a trustworthy honest estate sales company. Now you are going to try to help them do their job. Standing between the employees and their job can not only bring stress between them and the customers but you as well therefore making the sale not as successful. If you have communicated well and given the staff your contact information during the day to call on certain items, that should be sufficient in communicating during the sale. Realtors have the same requirements. You hire them as an agent to sell your home and as they negotiate, they will contact you if the limits of the contract are challenged. Being present during these negotiations is not only good business practice but confusing to the customer.
Example of this past week I had with a home owner:
Our contract clearly states that occupants and pets are not to be present at the sale. The homeowner texted me the day before to inform me the dog would have to stay at the sale locked on the back porch and all of the items we had on tables in that area would need to be moved. We moved the items that morning and the large dog was sweet but very upset during the sale as customers walked by and he wanted attention. Pets are often confused during moving situations anyway but a crowd of people in his territory for 3 days was very upsetting. At one time he ran into the house, jumped on the sofa and I had a very hard time getting him back out. Thank goodness he wasn't a biter.
To make things worse, the home owner decided to just hang around the last day. He proceeded to walk around and talk with customers, make deals, quote prices which were different from ours so many customers came to the register saying, "he told me one price but the owner told me another.: I was uncomfortable negotiating prices with him staring at me as I felt intimidated to quote a price that he was indifferent with. At one point he pulled a man to the side that was interested in several pieces of furniture and told him to come back after we leave and he would sell it to him for a better price! But the straw was when he plopped down on the sofa, turned on the football game and proceeded to watch it while people were browsing in the same room. One lady was reluctant to walk between him and the tv. I walked in and said, "You are not going to turn my classical music off, and watch tv in the middle of my sale!" He said, "I don't have anywhere to go." I said, "You signed a contract saying you wouldn't be here during the sale." He went outside but continued to make deals with customers. It did not look professional.
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