Sold to the Lady on the MacBook: Using an Online Auction Service to Help with Downsizing
Lot of mirrors photographed and cataloged, ready for an online auction.
It’s daunting to think about what is involved in getting a home ready for a move. You could be sitting on decades of accumulation — everything from unused wedding gifts, Lladros, an attic full of old holiday decorations, closets loaded with the discarded wardrobes of multiple family members, to a basement filled with neglected tools and home improvement projects.
What are you supposed to do with all that stuff?
Luckily, online auctions have increased in popularity and have the process of possession paring down to a science.
Getting Ready for an Online Auction
We have already talked about how A Simpler Life Now can help you go through your possessions and determine what you should bring to your new home based specifically on factors like size and location. We will have determined what you should pass along to family members. And we separated out items to donate and items to discard.
Now we get to items you can sell.
We partner with MaxSold, an estate-sale company dedicated to helping homeowners sell their possessions.
In a seller-managed auction, we will operate as the seller. We are your representative; it is our responsibility to go through your items, divide them into lots that make sense, and then catalog and photograph every item.
We do this as we work. So if, for example, you have a china set that is divided up in your dining room, your kitchen, with extra pieces in storage in the garage or attic, we will make sure that the pieces of the set are reunited to be sold as a complete lot.
The process of separating out items as we are sorting through the house will save you time and money, as each item will have to be “touched” only once.
The Online Auction Sale
Most of the clients we have worked with sell more than 90 percent of their items in the online auctions. This way, the house gets emptied out more quickly and is able to go on the market sooner.
MaxSold does all of the advertising for your items, provides bidder support and communication, and handles tech support and payment collection. Their auction platform is engineered to drive maximum sale value for your items.
At the end of the auction, a contactless pickup will be conducted, and voila! Your house is empty in a four-hour period.
Your small collectibles and vintage treasures will add up. You will earn more than you would have made at a garage sale, without the hassle and stress of having to orchestrate that garage sale. No price haggling and no strangers walking through your home as they look over your possessions!
Do you feel like you have spent years and years tucking away items in your basement and attic? Lots of things you saved “just in case”? While I bet some of it is pretty obscure, probably nothing you have lurking there is odder than some of the items that MaxSold has auctioned. Can you say used dentures and creepy rabbit puppets? We have sold everything from caskets to life-size mechanical clowns. An old rusted chicken plucker that was found in a barn and a collection of CPR dummies? Going, going, gone.
A Simpler Life Now will supervise the removal of all the items in your home that were sold during the auction in just a four-hour window. Sounds crazy, but it won't take long for your home to be emptied. Your treasured family possessions will have new life breathed into them as they go to happy new owners who know just what to do with them — and you walk away with your stress minimized and some money in your pocket, maybe to buy some new treasures?