146 - Does Your Junk Need A New Trunk?

In this episode Christina Keshishian shares her knowledge about online auctions and estate sales, so we can understand what they are and how they are conducted.

Christina is the co-owner of Anne & Anna Estate Services LLC, a company that conducts estate sales, online auctions and clean out services. Anne & Anna is a woman owned business that prides itself on providing a personalized service to all clients to help turn a stressful life event into a positive experience.

Whether it is the passing of a family member, a separation of a marriage or a transition in life relieve yourself of the emotional burden and put your trust in the professionals at Anne & Anna Estate Services.

To learn more, please visit www.anneandanna.com

In this episode we cover:

2:30        Who's Eligible?

3:31        Estate vs Online Sales

4:21        Who's A Good Fit?

5:03        Help With Pricing

5:52        Clear Out

6:40        Advantages Of Working With A Professional

8:44        Resellers

9:56        Sentimental Value

13:06     Are You Ready?

14:52      What They Can't Sell

16:21      What Sells Well

17:42      How To Make The Right Choice

Thanks so much for tuning in again this week. I appreciate you  🙂

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Special thanks to Christina Keshishian for being on the show.

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Transcript

Did You Know  0:02  
Did you know that estate sales are one of the most eco friendly ways to decorate your home? With overproduction and mass waste going into landfills? estate sales are a fun and greener way to shop for all your household needs. 

Intro  0:16  
Hello, action taker. Welcome to Live Blissed Out. A podcast where I have inspirational and informational conversations with business owners and subject matter experts to help you get the scoop on a variety of topics. Tired of hesitating or making decisions without having the big picture? Wanna be in the know? Then this is the place to go. I'm your host Marisa Huston. Helping you achieve bliss through awareness and action. So, let's get to it. In this episode, Christina Keshishian shares her knowledge about online auctions and estate sales, so we can understand what they are and how they are conducted. Christina is the co owner of Anne and Anna Estate Services LLC, a company that conducts estate sales, online auctions and clean out services. Anne and Anna is a woman owned business that prides itself on providing a personalized service to all clients to help turn a stressful life event into a positive experience. Whether it is the passing of a family member, a separation of a marriage or a transition in life, relieve yourself of the emotional burden and put your trust in the professionals at Anne and Anna Estate Services. To learn more, please visit www.anneandanna.com. 

Disclaimer  1:27  
The information opinions and recommendations presented in this podcast are for general information only and any reliance on the information provided in this podcast is done at your own risk. This podcast should not be considered professional advice. 

Marisa Huston  1:38  
Christina, it's great to have you on the show.

Christina Keshishian  1:41  
Oh, thank you for having me. Today, I want to talk about estate sales.  Not a lot of people know about estate sales and online auctions. So, I thought we would just go into the process and give people a better idea of what they're about and how they're conducted. I own an estate sale company called Anne and Anna Estate Services and we specialize in estate sales and online auctions. An estate sale is essentially a pop up retail event that happens in a person's home. It's a two day event usually and a lot of times when we conduct an estate sale, it's because someone's downsizing, a family member has passed away or moving to a different country. And so we prep and get their home ready to have the events and it's a great way to recover financial value and just to declutter your life.

Marisa Huston  2:27  
Is everybody eligible to have an estate sale?

Christina Keshishian  2:30  
Everybody is eligible to have an estate sale, you just really have to ask yourself, if you're willing to part with your items. An exercise that you can do to see if you're ready for an estate sale is just take a look around your house. If you feel like you are willing to let go about 70% of your items that you don't need then I would say you're ready. The biggest issue usually is people say they're ready, and they don't have the time to mentally process that and then when the sale starts, they start to get nervous and want to pull things from the sale. So as long as you're emotionally and mentally ready, you can conduct an estate sale. You don't need a whole household, like two or three rooms of items you want to get rid of. For those smaller events, I would recommend an online auction. So we can catalog and categorize everything and then you don't have a bunch of people in the rest of your home with things that aren't for sale. People will just pick up on one particular day and you can kind of condense it to just the one or two rooms.

Marisa Huston  3:23  
In essence, are you saying an estate sale is mostly done in person, whereas the online one is done online?

Christina Keshishian  3:31  
For the estate sale, the shoppers will come into the home and view all the items in the home. Kind of like a department store setup, they walk around the whole estate, and everything is usually for sale. For the auction process, it's a little different. We go into your home, me and my business partner, we will catalog everything that you want for sale, we will list it online. The auction usually lasts about five days.  And so no one enters your home during those five days. And then there's one day where people will come in and just pick up the items they already bought. They're limited access to one or two rooms wherever the items were stored. And so, if you don't have your whole estate for sale, I would commend that. That's just decreases traffic in your home and people being upset because certain things aren't for sale.

Marisa Huston  4:14  
If somebody is interested in this and they reach out to you, do you consult with them to determine if they're a good fit?

Christina Keshishian  4:21  
Yes, we provide free consultation. We'll come into your home, meet with you, take a look at what you have. We do pride ourselves in providing a personalized service. So, every state and every family is different. So we try to figure out what you're comfortable with. If you're comfortable with a lot of people coming into your home or you know sometimes people live in gated communities and have HOA's we gotta figure out the best way, what fits for each home. And all the consultations are free and we just take a few pictures and kind of see if there is enough for sale and if we feel like the family is ready for sale.

Marisa Huston  4:56  
Do you help them determine pricing like what you You think might be fair and might sell better?

Christina Keshishian  5:03  
Yes, we do all the pricing, of course we take input from the client. Usually, if they have receipts or what they purchase it for, it's a great way. But, a lot of things become collectibles over time. So, even if you paid a small amount for it, the value may have risen or may have depreciated. So, we use a couple of different software's and we check all auction sites to make sure that we know how much an item sold for versus how much it's listed for to see what the fair value of your items would be. For things that are a little bit more complicated we do have appraisers that we contact for pieces like fine art or fine jewelry to get a fair marketplace value.

Marisa Huston  5:42  
What about items that perhaps don't have any value? Maybe they're junk items that they just want to get rid of? Do you work with them to coordinate junk removal as well?

Christina Keshishian  5:52  
Yeah, we do do clear out. We can do it in lieu of an estate sale or afterwards, which is the more popular item. We'll remove all the items in your house and will also clean the home that way it's ready if the home was being put up for sale so that the client can rest assured that there's nothing left in the house that would deter possible sale or listing of a home. And even though you may think a few of your things are junk, things like rags, cleaning supplies that you wouldn't think sell, actually do a lot of times sell at estate sales. So we do recommend the client, if you are going to have an estate sale, don't throw anything away. Things you might not see value in may have some financial value for you at the end.

Marisa Huston  6:33  
What do you think are the biggest advantages of working with a professional versus trying to do this on your own?

Christina Keshishian  6:40  
Usually, a professional doesn't have sentimental attachments items. A lot of times I've talked to clients where they've been trying to get rid of stuff for a whole year and we come in and we can do it in about two weeks. We have systems in place. We know the best in the most efficient ways to organize, display or get rid of items. It's really hard, especially when you've been passed down certain things to look at them objectively and not let your sentimental side of you take control and inflate the value. Or, it's just overwhelming a lot of times for people. The amount of stuff and the amount of memories they have at home, it can be a very emotional process, doing it on your own. And with us, you're getting things appraised and you get full value for it. Whereas, when you try to sell things online by yourself, a lot of people don't know. They get scammed a lot. I've talked a lot of people who've been scammed out of money for listing items online. And so, when you hire an estate sale company, you're ensuring the process is well documented. You can't get scammed and everything is done for you so you don't have to stress about anything.

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Marisa Huston  8:20  
Sounds like you have somebody who's educated and really understands the little nuances that you wouldn't, because of course, we're not professionals. And so, we would know what to think about. And a lot of times at the end of it, oh my goodness, I didn't realize this or that or the other. And so, it's a lot less worrisome if you bring on a professional like you because you know that you have all the bases covered.

Christina Keshishian  8:44  
Exactly. And a lot of times too, most of the customers for the estate sales are resellers. And I'm not saying anything negative about resellers. But, when you don't know the full value of your item, you may sell it to a reseller for a very small percentage of what it's actually worth. Whereas, if you hire a company, we take all that into consideration and we see what the resellers are buying and how much they're selling it for so we can gauge how much to sell for them, where they still make a profit, but you're not being priced out and you are still making profit on your item as well.

Marisa Huston  9:16  
You talked about the emotional side of things and I completely agree. I think that we are attached to things because things bring memories for us. So, whether it was a gift from a grandparent, or even if it's an item that you don't think is of value, it is a value to the person. And so when it comes time to let go, it's very difficult for them to say, I'm okay with that. What are some steps that you take to help your clients feel more comfortable with those decisions so they don't feel like not only are they wasting your time, but they also don't feel like they're being pressured into getting rid of things that they still find valuable to them?

Christina Keshishian  9:56  
Yeah, and that's a great question and we do see a lot of that. And I would just say, before you even call an estate sale company get together with your family. Let's say it's the passing of a loved one, someone's mother in the house and there's so many things that remind you of your mom. I would just say get your family together, have everyone go through the house together and sit down and just really try to understand what holds real sentimental value to you and what your loved one would really want you to keep. I never like to pressure people to get rid of very sentimental things. Because you know, something that has a lot of value and sentimentally to you, may not sell for a lot of money. So, I'm very open and honest about that with people. If you feel the emotional value is higher than the financial value, you might gain, I would recommend keeping it. And of course, you have to be careful, you don't want to carry around clutter with you. Even if things are sentimental you don't want to have to be paying fees and storages. So, really try to think about what really has real meaning to you and if one item can represent a variety of memories versus keeping every little thing that reminds you of somebody. Try to think about the most useful things that you want, and you want to remember a person by. I never like to pressure anybody. It's a hard process. And so, before you hire a company, I recommend really making sure that you're emotionally ready. Because it can be very stressful, if not. And, I do always recommend to clients better not to be there when the sale happens for that reason. But, I understand people want to make sure everything goes well. So, if you have a trusted friend or family member that's maybe not as close to the situation as you, they can be there instead and kind of keep an eye on things for you. It's definitely an emotional and stressful situation. And, if a company's ever pressuring you, then maybe they're not the right fit for you.

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Marisa Huston  12:16  
I love that tip of stepping away from the process and letting you handle it. Because when you start seeing these items disappear and there's still items that you haven't convinced yourself that you really want to let go of, then it becomes very difficult during the moment. 

Christina Keshishian  12:34  
It does. And the whole point of hiring a company is so you're not as emotionally stressed or taxed from the process. So, it's definitely something that you have to mentally prepare for, I would say,

Marisa Huston  12:45  
Would you share with our listeners, Christina? What are some things they should be looking out for to know if they're ready to contact you? So for example, how do they know if they have enough items to sell? What are some of the clues they should be thinking about so that they know, okay, I think I'm ready to call somebody for help? 

Christina Keshishian  13:06  
So, if you're ever in a situation where like your stuff is ruling you, and your home is becoming so cluttered that it's inconvenience to you, I usually say that's a really good time. And then if you're paying for storages. And, I see this a lot is when someone's mother or father or brother passes away, and they're paying for storage units to keep all of their family members things and it becomes a financial and emotional burden. It's a great time to call an estate sale company or to kind of help you organize it and maybe recover some of that financial value. And if you feel like in your home that your stuff is ruling you and you feel anxiety, because there's so many things, so much clutter in your house an estate sales, a great way to really evaluate what you need versus what you don't need and what's taking away from you instead of bringing you joy. Our items do bring us joy but at some point when you have too many things going on it can be very stressful and depleting for you. Consulations are free. It never hurts just have someone come by and look and see if you have enough stuff. I would say to really see if you have enough stuff, think about when you go into a store or you go into an estate sale if you've been to one or even check out some pictures of estate sales, see how much stuff there usually is. Usually about at least two or three rooms worth of stuff is required just so we're not wasting the client's time or ours. This is one of the ways you can kind of see if you are ready. And I would recommend to people, if you're thinking about an estate sale, you know, go to an estate sale or check out an online auction. just to familiarize yourself a little bit with the process.

Marisa Huston  14:42  
That's a great idea because then you can see what's going on around you and have a better understanding. Are there items that you're not able to sell for the client?

Christina Keshishian  14:52  
In the state of Colorado, to sell any liquor wine or beer you need a license. So, I cannot help in selling wine or liquor. I can however gift it upon permission from the client. We can sell firearms. However, the person needs to be certified and there is a background check process and it's a lot of paperwork that will come with that. Of course, cause it's not a light thing to sell. And, I would say things that are broken, electronics that no longer work and are broken. Also, iPhones and Mac Books that have someone else's user information already on there. Anything with confidential information about the family, anything that could come back in a negative way that anything like Social Security or anything that has an address on it. For example, a lot of sterling silver plate ware. In the 50s and 60s, they would inscribe their social security number in it. So, for those cases I wouldn't sell it. We would just melt it for the family and give them the metal value for instead. Stuff that you wouldn't want to see like ripped or clothing or undergarments that have been very well used, obviously. Think of things you wouldn't want to buy from other people, usually that kind of stuff.

Marisa Huston  16:08  
So now that we covered the things that we want to not consider including in the sale, what are some items that are the most popular things that people tend to sell that sell well?

Christina Keshishian  16:21  
One of those things, honestly people think usually of big things. However, little things, kitchenware sells really well, paintings, art, clothing. As thrifting becomes more popular and people are more eco conscious, they don't want to create waste. Fast fashion creates a lot of waste, so clothing is a great thing that sells at sales. Furniture, there's a lot of trends that go in and out. Right now the big trend is mid century furniture. So, any furniture, paintings, collectibles sell really well. Or, if you have baseball cards or anything signed by athletes. Books are another great seller. Electronics are a little more complicated again, if they have a bunch of personal information. If you do want to sell your electronics, make sure you wipe all that information off. Tools are also a great market. With the cost of everything rising a lot of people would rather get their tools and gardening equipment, patio furniture. Pretty much a lot of your everyday household items can be sold. Even like Clorox, laundry detergent. We can even sell appliances, fridges, stoves, stuff like that, and yard art. All those things sell really well.

Marisa Huston  17:24  
It sounds like what you do, Christina is very confidential. You're going into somebody's home. And they're sharing very private information with you about the things that they own. What are some things they need to be looking for, so that they feel comfortable hiring a professional?

Christina Keshishian  17:42  
Well, I would always say go to a sale conducted by that company or check out the auctions that they have. Make sure that the person is not pressuring you. One thing I focus on is transparency. I will always be honest with a client or whether I think something will sell or if they have a better chance of holding on to it and listing it online themselves and waiting a few months, I always encourage the client to be there when we prep too so they can kind of keep an eye on us. I pride myself in our integrity. When you do have people come in your home, it's always better to make sure that all of your personal confidential things kind of go through your home and keep them in one secure location, whether it be a closet, or if they keep that locked. If we ever find anything confidential, we always put it aside and keep it for the client. And if it's your family member's home, I would always say older people will have a habit of hiding money around. So, just go through books and jacket pockets, stuff like that. Make sure you're aware of where everything is in the home.

Marisa Huston  18:42  
Those are really great tips. I understand that you are certified or licensed I guess to offer your services in Colorado. Is that correct? 

Christina Keshishian  18:52  
Yes. We have all our sales tax license, business license, incorporation. We are in the process of getting insured. And we do recommend that if you're going to have an estate sale in your home that the client have homeowners insurance as well. My family's been in this business for a very long time and things happen, but as long as everyone's insured, it makes this a lot easier.

Marisa Huston  19:13  
How do they get ahold of you and learn more about the services that you provide? 

Christina Keshishian  19:18  
You can contact us at anneandanna.com. Or, you can contact us by email at anne.annaestateservices@ gmail.com and we will come over and give you a free consultation. Over the phone, we can give you a full breakdown of our prices. We're also on Facebook at Anne and Anna Estate Services. We post all of our upcoming auctions and sales on both our website and our Facebook. You can also find us on www.estate sales.net

Marisa Huston  19:46  
Thank you so much, Christina. This is so helpful. I know there are a lot of people who have trepidations, I guess, about moving forward with this sort of process and it's nice to know that there's somebody out there they can call for help and really get a better understanding of what to expect. Because, I think a lot of people hold off. They're hesitant, and they're fearful because they don't really understand how it works. I'm hoping that we shed some light for our listeners today so that if they are in the process of considering making this move, they know who to call.

Christina Keshishian  20:18  
I'm always happy to talk to anybody and explain anything. There's no obligation. Give us a call at 970-673-7327. If you're just curious. Ff anyone has questions I'd be happy to answer them.

Marisa Huston  20:30  
Thank you, Christina. I appreciate you being here.

Christina Keshishian  20:33  
Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it as well.

Outro  20:36  
That's a wrap for this episode of Live Blissed Out. Thanks to Christina Keshishian for joining us and thanks for listening. If you have a question or comment for a future episode, all you have to do is go to www.speakpipe.com/lbovm or click the link in the show notes to leave a brief audio message. If you find value in our show, please visit www.liveblissedout.com to reach out, subscribe and share on social media. This show is made possible through listeners like you. Thank you. So long for now and remember to keep moving forward!