Spin off of PSA Declutter your House Thread - Estate clean out companies

[robinb]

Thanks for your input everyone, lots of things to think about.

I guess I should make it clear I am not interested in being an estate-sale broker or in being the person to tell people what has value vs what's junk. Way too much liability and personal involvement for my taste. I would have no problem hauling items from a basement/attic/etc and helping someone sort through them, but that's about as much involvement as I'd want. I just want to make it disappear and clean up afterwards.

[snip]

I hear you on the dumpster. There are places around here the same thing would happen. I also think I may need to re-evaluate my prices

That price is for a 3-person team going through a hoarders house (packed to the rafters) over the space of 3 weeks. They specialized in hoardy-homes and earned that money! In any case, yes ... $25-$30 per person hour is too low. Moving Forward charges $90-$100 per hour (they are charging my friend more because of the dust and pet dander) but they will clear her older 2,000 sq foot home in 3 days with a large team.

I think people who look to empty normal houses for estates are looking for a one stop shop and for someone to help and perform or facilitate all the aspects of the clean-out including sales. Moving Forward itself does not access the value of things. It works with other companies who will do that, estate sales companies (if that's what the client wants), used furniture resellers and online consignment shops to value what is not kept for family. If you don't want to do that, perhaps you can look into partnering with people who run estate sales to be their cleaners.

I think your idea is a good one and perhaps this can be a springboard for a more detailed and complete service once you do a few jobs and learn your customer's needs. Good luck! It is a service that is needed.

 

[disykat]

I still think it'd be worth partnering with someone who goes through looking for some higher value resale items first. It wouldn't cost you anything and might enable the customers to pay for your services. We would have much preferred that combo to an estate sale, but it wasn't available.