Most Profitable Sale EVER!

The most profitable sale I have ever had (just last month) was an Estate Sale we staged in a vacant house.  I have had this idea for quite a while, and the venue finally became available.  I have another guy that I partner up with buying units occasionally, so we bought a few good "antique" units together and staged this house with some really good stuff, no junk!

We hauled approximately five trailer loads of stuff to this vacant house.  We pulled the cabinet doors off all the cabinets in the kitchen and we pulled the pins and removed every interior door (except the hall bathroom) in the house and stacked them all in the master bathroom.  We strategically placed boxes and newspaper for wrapping stuff in the master bath and right outside the garage.  We had a bunch of nice bags (found in a storage unit of course!)with rope handles to bag up customers sales. 

We set up a number of tents outside, and filled the garage with tools.  We set up our cashier right outside the garage door and set up a heater and some of the smaller items so the cashier could keep an eye on them.  We then proceeded to stage the entire house (approx. 1800 sq. ft.).

We set up one bedroom with an antique bed, sewing machine, writers desk, antique carved chest, etc.  We set up the living room with some really nice furniture and throw rugs, lamps, tables, etc.  We set up a table full of nothing but crystal, and had little nik naks spread throughout.  We put a really nice table in the dining room and a bunch of nice china in front of the sliding glass door.   We filled up the Kitchen cabinets with Coca Cola stuff and various glassware.  We had a bunch of large cookie jars we set up around the top of the cabinets and on the counters.  We had the pantry full of corningware and small kitchen appliances.

We set up the office with a desk, chair, computer, and printer.  We also had a nice oak shelf unit and some Ikea cabinets.  We then stuck around 400 DVD's in the oak shelf.  We had folding tables set up all throughout the house.  The master bedroom had a couple of headboard and frame set ups and a bunch of tables and about 800 CD's on a table.  The laundry room had a bunch of ammo, and in the garage we had a bunch of golf stuff, a few firearms, a bunch of tools and camping gear, and various other stuff.  Outside we put some cheaper stuff under a couple of tents, and we both had our trailers there with the doors open and some stuff inside them for sale.

I spent the money to run an ad in the major local newspaper, and of course all over craigslist.  I also had a friend of mine that makes signs make me up a bunch of 18" x 24" Estate Sale signs.  The advertising worked well.......we had customers showing up at 6:45 for an 8 am start time!  When we finally let people in at 7:38, we had a large crowd gathered.  When my partner said "Okay!", it was like being at Wal-Mart on Black Friday! 

To make an already too long story short, we did 5700 on Thursday alone! (Here's a hint for you guys that like to have garage sales.......start them on Thursday, it is typically a VERY good day because not too many people do them on Thursday and you'll be one of the few).  Between Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, we grossed 11K! 

We had three helpers the first day and one on the second and third, plus we paid the guy to spend the night there so we didn't have to worry about theft in an empty house.  I paid for the signs, the newspaper ads, and we bought a few lunches for the helpers.  After it was all said and done, we netted about 4900.00 each.  It was a lot of work, but I would (and AM!) do it again in a heartbeat!

And, just to clarify why Estate Sale and not a Garage Sale?  First, it's cold and rainy, and pretty much, garage sale season is over until spring.  Second, I go to a lot of garage and estate sales myself.  I have noticed from a lot of the sales I go to and sales I have had, that people really want stuff super cheap at garage sales, but for some reason they expect to pay more at an estate sale, and tend to not bargain as hard.  I do (and will continue to do so) hold many garage sales, but when the opportunity presents itself again, I will definitely do another estate sale. 

Any questions?  Comments?  Feel free to ask anything.  Thanks for reading this long post!

That's a really good idea! Never thought about that. You just rent the house for the weekend?

You really need the house for at least a week.  By the time you haul all the stuff in and get it organized, and then have your three day sale, and a day for clean up, you'll be in it a week. 

With so many houses vacant out there, it's really not to hard to find one.  Try it in conjunction with a real estate agent.  They are willing to try just about anything these days to improve their chances of moving a property.  During our sale, we had all kinds of inquiries about what was going to happen to the house, and we had a number of people say they were looking for a house to buy.

Also, landlords can be another good source.  I'm going to do it again, and I know a guy that has a bunch of rentals.  When a tenant moves out, we're going to hold a sale in his rental house before he paints or shampoos the carpet.  I offered to pay for the carpet cleaning.  Cheap rental, and the money difference between Estate vs Garage sale will more than make up for it.

I currently have two more of these planned for the next couple of months, in two different locations in two different towns!

Congrats on your profitable sale!  That sounds like a great idea if you have lots of stuff to sell.  Thanks for sharing! 

I remember when my mom was trying to sell her house and we had a garage sale all winter long, every weekend at her place until we got rid of stuff!  She had lots of nice things to sell!  We had the same people coming about every weekend.  It was fun!

Healthe

Pure Genius!!!! Congrats

The most profitable sale I have ever had (just last month) was an Estate Sale we staged in a vacant house.  I have had this idea for quite a while, and the venue finally became available.  I have another guy that I partner up with buying units occasionally, so we bought a few good "antique" units together and staged this house with some really good stuff, no junk!

We hauled approximately five trailer loads of stuff to this vacant house.  We pulled the cabinet doors off all the cabinets in the kitchen and we pulled the pins and removed every interior door (except the hall bathroom) in the house and stacked them all in the master bathroom.  We strategically placed boxes and newspaper for wrapping stuff in the master bath and right outside the garage.  We had a bunch of nice bags (found in a storage unit of course!)with rope handles to bag up customers sales. 

We set up a number of tents outside, and filled the garage with tools.  We set up our cashier right outside the garage door and set up a heater and some of the smaller items so the cashier could keep an eye on them.  We then proceeded to stage the entire house (approx. 1800 sq. ft.).

We set up one bedroom with an antique bed, sewing machine, writers desk, antique carved chest, etc.  We set up the living room with some really nice furniture and throw rugs, lamps, tables, etc.  We set up a table full of nothing but crystal, and had little nik naks spread throughout.  We put a really nice table in the dining room and a bunch of nice china in front of the sliding glass door.   We filled up the Kitchen cabinets with Coca Cola stuff and various glassware.  We had a bunch of large cookie jars we set up around the top of the cabinets and on the counters.  We had the pantry full of corningware and small kitchen appliances.

We set up the office with a desk, chair, computer, and printer.  We also had a nice oak shelf unit and some Ikea cabinets.  We then stuck around 400 DVD's in the oak shelf.  We had folding tables set up all throughout the house.  The master bedroom had a couple of headboard and frame set ups and a bunch of tables and about 800 CD's on a table.  The laundry room had a bunch of ammo, and in the garage we had a bunch of golf stuff, a few firearms, a bunch of tools and camping gear, and various other stuff.  Outside we put some cheaper stuff under a couple of tents, and we both had our trailers there with the doors open and some stuff inside them for sale.

I spent the money to run an ad in the major local newspaper, and of course all over craigslist.  I also had a friend of mine that makes signs make me up a bunch of 18" x 24" Estate Sale signs.  The advertising worked well.......we had customers showing up at 6:45 for an 8 am start time!  When we finally let people in at 7:38, we had a large crowd gathered.  When my partner said "Okay!", it was like being at Wal-Mart on Black Friday! 

To make an already too long story short, we did 5700 on Thursday alone! (Here's a hint for you guys that like to have garage sales.......start them on Thursday, it is typically a VERY good day because not too many people do them on Thursday and you'll be one of the few).  Between Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, we grossed 11K! 

We had three helpers the first day and one on the second and third, plus we paid the guy to spend the night there so we didn't have to worry about theft in an empty house.  I paid for the signs, the newspaper ads, and we bought a few lunches for the helpers.  After it was all said and done, we netted about 4900.00 each.  It was a lot of work, but I would (and AM!) do it again in a heartbeat!

And, just to clarify why Estate Sale and not a Garage Sale?  First, it's cold and rainy, and pretty much, garage sale season is over until spring.  Second, I go to a lot of garage and estate sales myself.  I have noticed from a lot of the sales I go to and sales I have had, that people really want stuff super cheap at garage sales, but for some reason they expect to pay more at an estate sale, and tend to not bargain as hard.  I do (and will continue to do so) hold many garage sales, but when the opportunity presents itself again, I will definitely do another estate sale. 

Any questions?  Comments?  Feel free to ask anything.  Thanks for reading this long post!

Good idea, I did the same thing but had a local flea market handle the advertising and staff the sale for me. Cost me 30% but was well worth me not having to do the work. Most of the stuff came from units I had already made my money back on 4x over so really just wanted the stuff gone more than anything else but makign some money off the stuff was an added bonus.

That's definitely a novel idea and probably a few people have thought of it, but NOW it will be like the TV shows and spread like wildfire...still a good idea though !

I actually have a guy that came to my sale that is doing the same exact thing in 2 weeks.  I talked to him at my sale, and he has sold some stuff for me on ebay, and he decided to give it a try.  The cool thing about it is he doesn't have enough stuff to fill it up, so I'm going to be able to take a bunch of my stuff over there too!  Cha-ching!

Any questions from the real estate agents concerning liability insurance or??

Lol, you mention liability and the replys dissapear like virgins @ holloween 

Lol, you mention liability and the replys dissapear like virgins @ holloween 

I doubt that was the cause (maybe you're joking), but there are a fair number of threads that have few or even zero replys.