What to do when you need to liquidate an Estate

Estates are a big part of our business.  For the past 30 years selling estates has been the part of our business that has paid the bills.

Here are some of our ideas in regards to what you should do when the time comes to liquidate an estate.

1.  Don’t do anything! Before you start throwing away anything, call an estate professional. They can assist you in determining what is sellable and what is trash. Do not make a huge mistake by throwing out items that may be worth money. It is amazingthe amount of times we see people do this.

2.  We understand that heirs are going to want something from the estate. As the Persoanl Representative, one of the hardest jobs is to make sure that this is done in a fair and equitable manner.  You may want to hire an appraiser to make sure that everybody is getting their fair share

3.  Pick your Estate Liquidator wisely.  Do you need an Auctioneer, an estate sale professional or do you just need to wholsesale it to a dealer.  It depends on what you are trying to accomplish.  We have done all of the above. We are first and foremost auctioneers, but we have done estate sales in the past. (We do not do them today) and we have purchased estates outright.  A true professional will give you the pros and cons of their method.  

4. Beware of the person who promises you the moon when trying to list your estate. If it sounds to good to be true, it probably is. We recommend that a personal rep contact at least 3 people when liquidating their estate. This gives you options.

5.  Get a signed contract!  I really miss the days of conducting business with a handshake. But for YOUR protection get a signed contract and undestand what the contract entails. If in doubt have your attorney look it over.

6.  Beware of the Estate Pro who trys to talk you out of items that you do not want to part with.  This is usually not a good sign.

These are just some of the things that you need to look for when liquidating an estate. Many of these rules also come into effect when your are trying to sell your own items when moving or a divorce situation requires liquidation.

What is an Antique

One of the questions that I get asked on an almost daily basis is “What is an Antique?”.  Well in the case of cars it is 25 years according to the State of Florida.

However, for furniture, glassware and most other items it is 100 years old.  Some wonder why such an arbitrary number.  Basically it comes down to the Federal Government and import/export tariff laws.

Firearms present another wrinkle to this.  According to ATF any firearms manufactured after 1898 is considered to be modern and is subject to all regulations that buying a brand new weapon entails.

All of this being said, just because something is a true antique over 100 years old does not mean that items is necessarily worth anything.  Antiques values goes in cycles. What is hot and popular today may not be hot and popular tomorrow. As of today, the Victorian antique market is in horrible condition with some prices off 70% of what they were bringing just 2 years ago.  However what I lovingly refer to as “Mid-Century Weird” furniture from the 1950-1970 timeframe is bringing record prices today.

SO the bottom line is that age is just one factor in determining value. The other factors include: Condition, desirability, Quantity on Market, and to certain extents, color and other variables.

Hello world!

Welcome to the Florida Auctioneer’s Blog!  What I hope to do is inform the readers of this blog about auctions and some of the items that we sell.  I hope to have fun doing this and I truly hope that you enjoy my blogs.