10 Tips on How to Conduct an Estate Sale

10 Tips on How to Conduct an Estate Sale

The spring season is upon us. This is a time of new beginnings and a time for change. For many homeowners this is the start of the spring home selling season. For seniors this may be a time of transition. This may also mean a transition from your home of many years into an active adult community or a senior care facility.

This often raises the question of what to do with your home contents. Do you want to keep them and bring them with you to your new home or do you want a change as you transition into your new home? If you want a change, and want to look into buying new furniture, then this presents another challenge; what to do with your current furniture and your other household contents?

Exploring an Estate Sale is one option.

This is part of a continuing series of article and helpful tips and insights into senior care and senior transition services by Nick Santoro and Joe Santoro of Personal Property Managers (www.personalpropertymanagers.com )  Personal Property Managers specializes in senior transition services such as downsizing, content clean out and removal, estate sales, full service real estate and property sale and moving.

Selling the house, de-cluttering, cleaning-up and clearing-out your house and its contents can be both an exciting and daunting challenge. With the cost of senior care and perhaps moving into an active adult community being extremely expensive, the desire to maximize the value of a lifetime of memories becomes especially important.

With the help of an Estate Sale professional such as Personal Property Managers (http://www.personalpropertymanagers.com/estate_sale_liquidation_services.htm ) the desire to convert a lifetime of possessions into cash can become a reality.

One of the first steps in downsizing is to recognize that not all the belongings you have in your current home can fit into your new home. Often parents would like to pass their belongings to their children. This presents  another challenge, because their  grown kids are often very busy or have totally different tastes. As a result, many parents will simply throw away, give away or donate everything in a belief that these items have no real value to others.  Nick Santoro of Personal Property Managers, a certified Estate Sale specialist says that you’ll be surprised as to what people will actually buy at an Estate Sale if it is conducted properly and advertised and promoted professionally. Nick says that one person’s trash is another person’s treasure.  

Nick Santoro advises his Personal Property Managers Estate Sale clients that to get the most of out of your Estate Sale, clients should consider his 10 Estate Sale tips:

1. When client are trying to sell something, they should think like a buyer. Make believe that the shoe is on the other foot, and set up your sale accordingly.
2. The success of an Estate Sale will depend on three things – 1) marketing; to create awareness, 2) selection of items for sale with lots and lots of pictures (to be included in your advertising) and 3) realistic and attractive prices to get people to buy; remembering that what one paid for an item and what it will sell for at an Estate Sale are often two very different price points.
3. Selection – an estate sale should encompass a household of different items (furniture, appliances, tools and more), placed in an attractive and clean display, and staged to bring focus to the items that are most likely to catch people’s eye.
4. Pricing Estate Sale items at reasonable and realistic price points is critical. As a general rule of thumb, this usually means items may sell for about 20% of original cost…but this is a very general rule and depends on many conditions such as its condition, its uniqueness, its value and so on. Although many items will have great sentimental value or may have cost a lot originally, they will most likely not be worth as much to potential buyers as they are to you. Take the time to research various websites to make educated and professional price comparisons.
5. Understand that an estate sale is really a full house version of a garage sale. Things are spread throughout the entire home, not just the driveway. It is important to have professionals cover the entire home as salespeople and for security to avoid theft.  
6. Be prepared to negotiate. Negotiating prices is the foundation of every garage sale and estate sale.  
7. Valuables like gold, precious stones or signed artwork should be tested and appraised, or left out of the sale. Estate sale buyers may not be the right buyers for true valuables. You may need to find more specialized sources to sell these.
8. Proper Estate Sale promotion, marketing and advertising is critical to an Estate Sales success. Personal Property Managers designs special web pages dedicated to each of their client’s individual estate sale and then promotes them on a host of Estate Sale Websites and other proprietary venues. You’ll want to draw as much attention to the sale as possible by using signs along public roads. We have found that 40-50% of your buyers will come from the signs, so large noticeable signs with proper messaging and strategic placement is very important.  
9. Prepare a fanny pack for each staff member with sales materials to keep the sale running efficiently and smoothly.
10. Hand out tickets starting an hour or so prior to the sale to allow access on a first come, first serve basis. Make sure to only allow enough people in at a time to follow fire department regulations.

Personal Property Managers, LLC (www.personalpropertymanagers.com ) can help you in the process of asset liquidation, Estate Sales and moving. At Personal Property Managers we specialize in downsizing, content removal and liquidation, Real Estate / property sales and moving. With one call, Personal Property Managers does it all.

For more information please contact Nick Santoro or Joe Santoro of Personal Property Managers at www.personalpropertymanagers.com  or simply give us a call at 215-485-9272 or 908-368-1909. Personal Property Managers specializes in helping to transition elderly ones from their home of many years into senior care communities. Personal Property Managers services Pennsylvania and New Jersey and offers downsizing services, estate sales services, home staging, full service real estate services via its association with Every Home Realty to help sell homes and their contents.

The Cost of Senior Care and Your Options

The Cost of Senior Care and Your Options

Are you the caregiver of a senior loved one? Have you ever wondered how expensive the cost of long term senior care is for your elderly loved is as they may need care in a nursing home or an assisted living community or perhaps need in-home care services?

This is part of a continuing series of article and helpful tips and insights into senior care and senior transition services by Nick Santoro and Joe Santoro of Personal Property Managers (www.personalpropertymanagers.com )  Personal Property Managers specializes in senior transition services such as downsizing, content clean out and removal, estate sales, full service real estate and property sale and moving.

We’d like to share with you some recent information conducted by Genworth Financial about the cost of caring for our seniors. We think this will not only be informative but a real eye opener.

This year’s annual cost-of-care survey shows that the national, median annual cost for care in an assisted-living facility is about $42,000.

The average cost of an assisted-living facility nationwide has increased 4.29 percent annually over the past five years, according to the study.

Nationwide, the cost for a private nursing home room rose about 4.2 percent annually over the past five years to $87,600.

This is part of an 11 year study surveying about 15,000 providers of long-term care services nationwide.

About 70 % of people older than 65 will need some form of long-term care services, but costs for those services have been rising for years. The average length of a long-term care claim is about three years.

The median cost of a private bedroom in an assisted living facility now stands at about $47,880. The cost of a private room in a nursing home has increased 3 percent to $84,315.

Costs for adult day care and home care have grown at slower pace of about 1 percent to 2 percent. The median cost for in-home health aide services now runs about $43,472 a year, while the cost of adult day care services cost about $15,860.

Nationally, the 2014 median hourly cost for the services of a homemaker or in-home health aide hired from a home care agency is $19 and $19.75, respectively.

The real challenge is how to pay for the long term care of our elderly.

There are several options. One is to secure a long term care insurance policy. However, the cost for this type of insurance is often very expensive and will depend on the age of the client. The older the client is the more costly it is on an annualized basis.

Often times families are forced to pay for the cost of their loved ones long term care by liquidating their assets. This means selling the home of their loved one and liquidating their financial assets such as stocks and bonds and other holdings. Then depending upon the state you live in, Medicaid will step in, but they use a 5 year look back to determine eligibility and need. In other words, virtually all assets must be exhausted before the state Medicaid system will step in…again, this depends upon the state in which you live in.

Personal Property Managers, LLC (www.personalpropertymanagers.com ) can help you in the process of asset liquidation and moving. At Personal Property Managers we specialize in downsizing, content removal and liquidation, Real Estate / property sales and moving. With one call, Personal Property Managers does it all.

For more information on helping your senior loved one who may be in need of transitioning from their home of many years into a senior care community, please contact Nick Santoro or Joe Santoro of Personal Property Managers at www.personalpropertymanagers.com  or simply give us a call at 215-485-9272 or 908-368-1909. Personal Property Managers specializes in helping to transition elderly ones from their home of many years into senior care communities. Personal Property Managers services Pennsylvania and New Jersey and offers downsizing services, estate sales services, home staging, full service real estate services via its association with Every Home Realty to help sell homes with proceeds going towards paying for the long term care of elderly loved ones and moving services

Tips for helping Downsizing a Senior Loved Ones Home

Tips for helping Downsizing a Senior Loved ones home

Are you the caregiver of a senior loved one? Have you reached the point where it may no longer be possible for you to care for your senior loved one at their home? Have you reached the point where you feel that the care of your senior loved one can best be handled by professionals at a senior care community?

If the answer to any of these questions is yes…then this is only the beginning. What about helping downsizing your senior loved one and their home and their possessions? This is often a daunting process.

This is part of a continuing series of article and helpful tips and insights into senior care and senior transition services by Nick Santoro and Joe Santoro of Personal Property Managers (www.personalpropertymanagers.com )  Personal Property Managers specializes in senior transition services such as downsizing, content clean out and removal, estate sales, full service real estate and property sale and moving.

Downsizing is a necessary reality and part of moving to a new residence.  There are a life time of memories and possessions that need to be gone through and decisions need to be made as to what to keep and what to discard or donate. Downsizing can be particularly wrenching for the elderly, or for that matter their caregivers who may find it overwhelming to think about letting go of the items they’ve gathered over a lifetime. If a senior loved one is faced with a move to assisted living, it is just not possible to move every item from ones home into a senior community.

This can lead to difficult conversations for family caregivers, who are usually the ones faced with confronting their parents about downsizing. Fortunately, there are strategies you can follow to make the process easier, even if a senior loved one has a more serious hoarding issue.

Getting rid of longtime possessions, especially for folks who have lived in their home for decades and for items that they have grown attached to isn’t easy for anyone, but for our elderly loved ones, it can feel like giving up cherished memories, especially if they are faced with leaving a long-term home on top of it all.

Letting go:

You can take solace in the fact that you are not alone. In fact, it’s quite common. A recent study by the Gerontology Center at the University of Kansas looked at survey data from 22,000 participants and found that about 30% of people over age 70 had done nothing to give away belongings over the past 12 months. Yet more than half of the respondents in all age categories believed they had too many belongings.  The challenge is that it is extraordinary difficult to give up items that are so closely linked to peoples identities and their past and all their memories.

Hording:

Hording is a real challenge for many, especially senior citizen who have lived in their home for many years. If their collection of stuff is actually impairing their everyday functioning and threatening their health or that of others, they may be suffering from an elderly hoarding disorder. This may be happening right under your nose, and you may not realize this or may not want to admit it. If you know someone who is having trouble letting go of personal possessions and is distressed at the thought of discarding them, that alone may not constitute elderly hoarding behavior.

However, if a person’s clutter is so extreme that their living space is unusable, unsanitary, or hazardous, or if they are exhibiting symptoms like self-neglect and social withdrawal, it may be time to consider whether they have elderly hoarding disorder and whether they should move into assisted living.

Downsizing Discussion Tips:

Whether you suspect your loved one has senior hoarding issues, or they simply have too much stuff for a small assisted living apartment, broaching the topic of downsizing can be a scary thought. You might be wondering, how can I ask Mom and Dad to give up so many mementoes they obviously cherish, and risk upsetting them? Indeed, the conversation – and the culling process itself – can be quite distressing.

One way to address the issue of clutter or just too much stuff is to approach it from a different direction. You may want to consider working with your senior loved one to give away unneeded belongings to the needy. So now instead of feeling ashamed that you have too much stuff, you can feel better knowing that you are helping others.

Seeking the assistance of trusted friends and family to help your loved one clear their clutter can be an enormous help. Having others around to share memories with can make the process less painful, for one thing. It can also make it less overwhelming and time-consuming. Often seniors or for that matter their caregivers are overwhelmed by the size of the task, or feel physically incapable. Sometimes, though, the situation may require the assistance of a professional. That’s where Personal Property Managers can help. We are senior transition specialist and can help with all your downsizing needs…be it clean out, donations, estate sales or disposal.

For more information on home downsizing please contact Nick Santoro or Joe Santoro of Personal Property Managers at www.personalpropertymanagers.com  or simply give us a call at 215-485-9272 or 908-368-1909. Personal Property Managers specializes in helping to transition elderly ones from their home of many years into senior care communities. Personal Property Managers services Pennsylvania and New Jersey and offers downsizing services, estate sales services, home staging, full service real estate services via its association with Every Home Realty to help sell homes with proceeds going towards paying for the long term care of elderly loved ones and moving services