u/teoway

I am an estate auction company that had something unusual for me happen this past weekend. I sell everything (obviously not food) that is still packaged and/or clean. I will preface this by saying I normally get homes where it’s a second home, a home where the owners passed or has not been listed for sale yet.

In my homes I’ve been selling large lots of usable cleaning products, linen closets of sealed household/toiletries items. I try to pass savings where I can and keep items out of landfills prematurely. They generally sell very well.

I had my auction posted for a week and when we went today for pickups and I started grouping everyone’s items I noticed there were items missing (owners have been in Florida prior to me starting so was absolutely not them) the home is sold and is going through its contract faze, inspections were already complete so the owner and I figured there wouldn’t be any issues. I was wrong. A whole lot of brand new cleaning items were gone, toiletry closet was picked through with very little left (obviously customer is being refunded with sincere apologies). I have an idea of what happened because I have always been told about this type of dishonesty, I’m sure most of you have an idea on who actually has access to the house at the point of it being listed. Of course I did notify the homeowner.

What do other estate companies do in scenarios like this?

Any other advice moving forward?

I am going to preface this with I’m too nice.

I am trying to tweak my contracts because I seem to be running into things that aren’t the very basic issues with owning/running a estate auction business, nothing crazy just the nuances that you have to work through. Couple of questions if anyone has any insight:

- houses without overhead lighting, I didn’t notice how unkept the house was until after I started, low lighting and got fooled so I’m doing it as quickly as humanly possible with people that are making the process very difficult, example not getting their stuff out of the way of the items they want to sell, couple of things no problem I got it. But a bunch of stuff? No not doing it.

- unable to decide if they are keeping or selling items in certain areas, is it unprofessional to just skip it? I’ve asked and it’s annoying to keep bouncing around waiting on a response as I have other sales lined up right after and don’t want to miss my deadline for posting.

How much time between sales do you give yourselves? I’m working on a 2 day off time between ending and starting, I give myself 4-5 days to organize and list it, be posted for 5 days and pick ups 2 days should it be longer? I’m trying to strike while the iron is hot.

I just started on this endeavor on my own even though I managed an auction house for 10 years (2000s, things were much different then) and have been around the business my whole life, selling the stuff isn’t the problem it’s keeping my sellers organized and on task.

I guess it’s more than just contracts.

What are some things that get under your skin that you wish people would do better?

I set appointment times for pickups, I don’t want anyone waiting an hour to receive their stuff after an auction. It just turns into a total cluster, my biggest pet peeve is the people that act like they had no idea they had to make an appointment and get annoyed when you help others first. I still don’t make them wait long even though I should.

Are there homes you flat out say no to? If so why? Or one that sticks out to you.