What to Do with Dead People's Stuff (Part 2)

Imagine this: a family gathers to divide their grandmother's estate. A beloved heirloom, a dining room table and chairs, becomes the center of a heated dispute. Such conflicts are not uncommon when dealing with the possessions of a loved one. This article offers practical advice on how to navigate these sensitive situations and ensure a fair distribution of belongings. In addition, you’ll find my recommendations for maximizing the value of a deceased person's belongings.

What If a Family Has Trouble Working Together? 

Most of the time, when a person dies, there are multiple people who need to weigh in on decisions. Sometimes the process is relatively simple, and decisions are made easily without conflict. But often the decisions are complicated and include disagreements. Multiple people usually means multiple opinions, and individuals may have different expectations about what specific belongings they will receive or how funds from the sale of items will be split. 

In this situation, a service like FairSplit can be invaluable. FairSplit was specifically designed for the tasks associated with a move, estate division, downsizing, or divorce where people need to decide who gets what, what can be sold, donated, etc. They’ve been helping families with these sticky situations since 2010. Their tagline, “Divide Things, Not Families: Your proven system to list and divide personal property between heirs” explains their mission well. 

FairSplit offers free shareable inventory questions that can be used to create a centralized place to list, organize, and share information about the contents of a home. By having the inventory online, the process is transparent, efficient, and accessible for all, not requiring everyone to gather to make decisions. They also offer several paid packages which include help from an experienced administrator. You can find out more about their services on their website, fairsplit.com. 

By the way, I don’t have a relationship with this company and don’t benefit financially from someone using their services because of my referral. 

What If a Family Needs to Make Money? 

There are many available options to recoup money from a deceased loved one’s belongings. They range from time-consuming DIY options to completely hands off alternatives for those who choose not to do the work themselves. 

Garage Sale

Consider a garage sale in a situation where there are a large amount of items that are not extremely valuable and the family has the time and people to conduct it. Garage sales are quite time-consuming, but depending on how well they’re publicized, they have the potential to sell a lot of items rapidly. Since you’re dealing with not-so valuable items, you may choose to simply donate items that don’t sell. You can have a thrift store pick up the items or transport them yourself. 

Online Sales

Listing and selling items online can be a good alternative to a garage sale. Keep in mind that these methods can still be time-consuming and complicated unless you want to hire someone to handle the sales in exchange for a percentage of the sale. With any of these options, the work requires these steps at a minimum: opening an account, posting the items (including a detailed description, photograph, measurements, and a price, which requires research), and responding to inquiries. Depending on the method, you will need to either welcome interested buyers into your home or meet them at a neutral location, and you might need to package and ship the items. Depending on the platform, you may also have to deal with returns and refunds. Each of these actions can be laborious. 

Facebook Marketplace is an excellent option for selling larger items (like furniture) and for selling locally. Poshmark is best for selling clothing and fashion accessories. Etsy is a good choice for selling crafts, jewelry, and creative work. Ebay is optimal for selling a wide variety of items. If you’ve got a large amount of items, the amount of time required for online sales may be time-prohibitive. There are so many other tasks that must be attended to when someone dies, and online sales may simply be too much to handle. 

Estate Sale

An estate sale is an ideal choice for a large estate, one with valuable items, or when the process of selling a loved one's belongings is too physically or emotionally difficult. Estate sales can be done by the family, but many families choose to hire a company to handle the details of sorting, pricing, arranging, displaying, advertising, running the sale (including security at the event), disposing of unsold items, and cleaning up. Because professionals have experience pricing and selling valuable items, you may end up making more money on high value items.

Estate sale companies generally charge a standard commission rate of 30-40% of sales. Before they agree to take on a client, they'll typically provide a gross sales minimum. This means that the total value of all the items to be sold must meet or exceed that value. 

Companies usually meet with the family (or ask for photos of valuable items) so they can decide whether the estate has the potential to generate their minimum amount. In terms of workload for the family, usually all that is required is that family members remove any items they want to keep before the sale. The estate sale company does everything else. 

In my experience with clients, those that have employed an estate sale company have been happy with their decision. They viewed the commission rate as a small price to pay for the time they saved and the peace of mind of knowing the details were being handled by a professional. If you’re considering an estate sale, start by talking to an estate sale professional. They’ll be able to guide you in your decision. 

Conclusion

In order to choose the optimal approach, determine the types of items you’ll be selling, their condition and value, available resources (in terms of time and people who can help), and your own preferences. If possible, include every stakeholder in the decision-making. You may want to consider a combination of selling methods to maximize returns and minimize stress. Prioritize research, patience, and effective communication throughout the process. 

My first article on this topic explained how to decide what to keep and not to keep, how to honor your loved one’s memory regarding their things, how to give yourself grace and time to make the decisions, how to think ahead about your own belongings, and much more. You can find that article on my website, shipshape.solutions. Feel free to email me (angie@shipshape.solutions) with questions.