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Hiring an estate sale company
Updated Nov 2026 · Find estate sale and auction companies by county →
An estate sale company prices, stages and sells the contents of a home — in a weekend sale at the house, in an online auction, or both — and keeps a share of what it brings in. For a home full of furniture, tools, china and collections, it's usually the best way to turn contents into money without the family doing it piece by piece.
How companies get paid
Nearly all work on commission. In Connecticut and nationally, commissions typically run somewhere between a third and half of the gross sales, with the rate depending on how much work the house is and how valuable the contents are. A company might take a lower percentage on a large, high-value estate and a higher one on a small, labor-heavy sale. Some charge a minimum fee if the sale won't clear a certain amount. Ask about all of it, and get it in writing.
What a sale brings in varies enormously. Industry averages for a full-house sale land in the low to mid five figures before commission, but a modest home with ordinary contents may bring a few thousand, and some houses don't have enough to justify a sale at all. An honest company will tell you that at the walk-through.
Questions that separate the good ones
- Are you insured, and can I see the certificate? Strangers will be walking through the house.
- Who prices the items, and how? You want to hear about research and experience, not guesswork. Ask how they handle anything that might be worth more than they can price — a good company brings in an appraiser or routes it to auction.
- How do you advertise? EstateSales.net and EstateSales.org are the standard listing sites; email lists and social media add to it. A company with no following has no buyers.
- What happens to what doesn't sell? Options are a discount day, a buyout, donation, or a cleanout. Know which, and what each costs.
- When and how do I get paid? A written accounting and a check within a stated number of days is standard.
- Can I see a recent sale's accounting, with the client's name removed? The good ones will show you.
Before the sale
Remove everything the family is keeping before the company's first walk-through, not after they've priced it. Don't throw anything away first — companies routinely find value in what families assume is junk, and the sorting is part of what you're paying for. And check with the estate's attorney before selling anything significant; items may need to be inventoried for the court first.
Estate sale or auction?
In-person tag sales work well for ordinary household contents and draw local buyers. Online auctions reach collectors anywhere and suit antiques, art, jewelry and collections. Many Connecticut companies now do both, and will tell you which fits the house.