Frequently Asked Questions

You Asked, We Answered

Why Choose Kaleidoscope?

Our team is made up of knowledgeable and hardworking professionals that love doing estate sales. Our goal is threefold: (1) to take the utmost care of your belongings and property, (2) to obtain the highest price for your belongings and (3) to sell all of your belongings. We charge a percentage of the revenues from the sale. Our team will come into your home to clean, sort, stage, appraise, price, advertise, market and sell your entire contents. We will empty the entire estate (house, garage and yard), leaving your place neat and clean for marketing and selling.

Why Have an Estate Sale?

The most common reason for an estate sale is the death of the property owner and the need to liquidate the deceased’s belongings. The heirs may have no interest in the bulk of the personal belongings, or may lack space to keep the belongings. In situations where the survivors cannot agree on the disposition of the belongings, a court may order the goods sold in an estate sale with the proceeds divided among the heirs. An estate sale may also be mandated in the will of the deceased.

An estate sale may also occur because the property owner will be moving or has moved into a situation where he will be unable to keep his property, for example, a move to an assisted living facility, a retirement community, a rest home or other living quarters.

We recognize that the scope of the process is likely to be overwhelming to the survivors. We are here to assist you through this process with the least amount of stress and worry.

How do I get ready for an Estate Sale?

You need to do nothing. In fact, it is our hope and desire that you and your family will leave everything just where it is. Do not clean, sort or throw anything away. Merely remove any family heirlooms, photos or other items you would like to keep for you and your loved ones and leave the rest to us. We are here to make your life easier and the biggest favor you can do for us is to let us decide what to recycle, re-purpose, throw away or sell. You would be amazed at what we are able to market.

What to Expect When Getting Started

When you call us, team members will meet with you and walk through the house and property to assess whether or not to proceed with an estate sale. If you and we agree to proceed, we will ask you to sign an agreement and turn the house over to us so we can begin to work. Should we determine that the contents of the home are not enough for a sale, we will put you in contact with other estate sale companies, a local charity which will best suit your needs or other organization where your family’s belongings can best be used and appreciated by those who have little or nothing of their own.

You do not pay anything to start the process of holding an estate sale. We charge a percentage of the revenues from the sale, from which we pay our team members and our expenses. These terms are in our agreement. We will set the dates to conduct the sale, although the dates may need to change as circumstances warrant. You will be informed of any such changes.

We want you to be comfortable with our company and feel that you are making an informed decision on who will best fit your needs. We take pride in the fact that our estate sales have a reputation for professionalism, fairness, cleanliness and attractive display of your family’s belongings. We will obtain the best price that we can get for you and dispose of all of your belongings.

Building the Estate Sale

After you have given us the key and access to the house, we request that nothing else is removed from the house. We will move in our supplies and display tables. Our team will then begin to unearth, sort, clean, photograph, research, stage and price your items for sale.

Occasionally, we may bring in pieces of furniture to “fill in” the spaces where family members have removed items they wish to keep. We have these items on consignment, and they are kept separate from the belongings of the estate. We have found that having the house full of furnishings enhances the sale for the family and generates more traffic through the house, increasing the potential for selling the property.

As the dates for conducting the estate sale approach, we will take a final photograph of each room that will be attached to an announcement that is sent to our e-mail list and published on our website. We also advertise online, as well as placing advertisements in the newspaper classifieds section. Our company relies on referrals from local real estate agents and we work with them and the family in marketing the house. Frequently, the real estate agent will display fliers during the estate sale and, hopefully, find someone who may be interested in purchasing the property.

Final Sale Preparations

In order to the make the sale the best it can be, we ask that nothing be removed from the sale after our team members come to work on the house, except personal items which we have set aside for you and your family, any monies found, fine jewelry which we will ask you if you would like to keep, as well as coin collections, guns or extremely valuable family heirlooms. We do not want anyone to regret selling something that was part of the family and unable to be replaced. We want the end result to be happy customers.

We strive to make this process as painless as possible, allowing us to showcase the hard work and show respect for the memory of the deceased and to enable our customers to find magnificent items to add to their collection at a fair and decent price. We strive to do our best and take pride in knowing that we are assisting families through this transition.