Company Information

http://stores.ebay.com/keef-wend for our Ebay Store.

You can find most information about our company at www.wjservices.net. Wendell Keefer & Jose Aguayo Estate Sales.

 wjestatesales@outlook.com

      WELCOME TO
Wendell Keefer & Jose Aguayo Estate Sales
 We take pride in our work and love the job.

First you should know that any money found in the property is not part of the estate sale. We know that people like to hide valuables and sometimes they can hide them well enough that they may not be found until preparations are being made. Any money found will be given to the property owners and any valuables in the sale will be at the discretion of the property owner. Property owners should check the property to find anything hidden and remove items that they do not want sold.

We offer you several options for liquidating your items. You will be able to decide which option works best for you and your circumstances.
 

General Estate Sale

This type of sale would be held at your location. The percentages for this type of sale are anywhere from 30 to 40%. The percentage will vary by the net sale amount as well as the work involved for the sale. The sale is usually conducted in four days. This is best if you want to clear the items out fast with the least amount of money from the items. We will handle only the sale. There would be no clean up or any items removed from the property after the sale.

General Estate and Warehouse Sale

This type of sale would be held at your location. We would try to get the best possible price for the items being sold. We would put many of the items online to be sold there. Once the sale is complete, all saleable items would be pulled to our warehouse in Fontana to be liquidated there. The percentages for this type of sale are anywhere from 40 to 50%. The percentage will vary by the net sale amount as well as the work involved for the sale. The sale is usually conducted in four days. Then all saleable items are usually out of the home within a week and brought to the warehouse. There would be no clean up, not trash removal and no unsalable items removed from the home. This is best if you want to clear the items out fast and still receive the best value for your items. 

Pull Sale

Some of you may not want people entering your home or you may not be able to have a sale at your location. For you, we have a service that we can come in, box up all items or unwanted items and remove them from the premises to sell in our warehouse. 

This type of sale would be held at our location. We would try to get the best possible price for the items being sold. We would put many of the items online to be sold there. The percentages for this type of sale are anywhere from 50 to 60%. The percentage will vary by the net sale amount as well as the work involved for the sale. The sale is usually conducted in months, so if you are looking to have your funds fast, this is not a good option. However, if you want the best possible prices for your items, this is the best option. There would be no clean up, not trash removal and no unsalable items removed from the home. This is best if you want to clear the items out fast and receive the best value for your items. 

Trash Removal and Sweeping (Interior Only)

This is an extra service. We will have everything removed and swept when we leave. Add anywhere from 10 to 20% onto the fees for this service. The percentage will depend on the service you select and the amount of work involved.

Trash Removal and Sweeping (Interior & Exterior)

This is an extra service. We will have everything removed and swept when we leave. Add anywhere from 20 to 30% onto the fees for this service. The percentage will depend on the service you select and the amount of work involved.

From experience, we know that most people that walk into an Estate Sale are looking for bargains. The “General Estate Sale” option, is not usually the best way to receive the best dollar amount for your items. This is usually a rush job and people know you need to take penny’s on the dollar to liquidate. By using some of the other options, the percentages are higher, but we try to sell more valuable items on our website, Ebay, Etsy and other online avenues. This gives us a much broader range of buyers and usually they are looking for those types of items so they will pay top dollar for them. We want to sell your item for a price that is fair for you and for the buyer. Why would you want to sell an item for $500.00 that you could receive $1,000.00 for. It may take a little longer, but it is well worth the wait.

Assessing the Property
Initially, we will come to the property and make a review of the contents of the property. This will allow us to determine if a sale is in your and our best interest. If there is not a possible sale, and you are not interested in the Pull-Sale Option, we will be glad to give you a list of possible charities that could take the items for you.

Finding your Liquidator
Ensure you check out our company as well as others to ensure you will be happy with the services provided. If the property does have enough for a sale, you will need to interview some Liquidators to make a decision on who you want to use. Ensure you feel comfortable with whoever you choose. We want you to choose us with an open and educated mind and that you will be happy with the end result. Be ready to sign a contract when you have made your decision.

Basic Beginning
After the date for the sale has been set. We will need a key to the property and full access to the property. We will clean, sort, photograph, research, and market all of the items to be sold as much as possible. As soon as this is accomplished, we will notify by email, hand out fliers in the neighborhood and advertise the sale. We will also do notifications prior to the pre-sale, adding items that were found during the clean up and set up.
The costs for any mailing and flier information are shared from the gross proceeds of the sale itself, as well as print ads, pre-sale or worker food, labor or crew, and basic clean up costs. We try and minimize all of these costs as much as possible. All of these costs will come out of our pocket and will be reimbursed at the end of the sale from the proceeds of the sale. The balance will be the net of the sale and will be divided as per the contract. Everything will be itemized so that you are assured of the cost of all items and services.

Preparing for the Sale
We will bring in everything for the sale, everything from tables, chairs, cases for display, and anything else needed to give the sale, such as tarps and awnings for the outside wet weather. We will then price all substantial items that can be marked. This is all done to be prepared for the pre-sale which will usually occur Thursday before the general sale. Thursday will be an invitation only sale for your family, neighbors and whomever you so chose are welcome to attend. This allows them to buy before the public sale which will begin on Friday. The hours of the sale will depend on the neighborhood and any other factors that need to be considered. Thursday and Friday prices are set at full price. Saturday all items will be marked 20% and Sundays will be 40% off to liquidate as much as possible. We will generally give away remaining items or donate them to charity to keep items from going to the land fill.

The Sale
The sale is now ready and we ask that nothing be removed from the sale once we begin the set up. We will set aside personal items for your family, any monies found, fine jewelry that you would like to keep, as well as coin collections and guns and extremely valuable family heirlooms. We don't want anyone to regret selling anything that was part of the family.

Covering the bases
While setting up, we want to ensure we can reach you if there would be any questions on any items found to ensure items are not sold that may be of value to you. We also encourage you to come to the property after set up to walk through and ensure nothing is sold that you may want to keep. However, anything that has been advertised should not be removed so that the public do not have the sense of false advertising, which we will not do.

Outcome
As the sale progresses, we expect to have the most sales on Thursday. Friday we expect 20-30 percent and Saturday and Sunday, 5-20 percent. The clean up will take place after the final day of the sale and we will continue until all is done. If you choose, we will clean up the yard, garage and the entire premises, adding the costs to the end of the families net results and paying for it from their end only. Keep in mind we will log most large and expensive items for you so you have a list of what the items sold for. It is impossible to note every item in the sale, but we will do our best to ensure you are happy with the listed items and the amounts sold.

Finishing
We want to make the process as painless as possible. We want to work hard and show respect to the family. We want our clients to find magnificent items to add to their collections at fair and decent prices. Lastly we want to ensure that items are not taken to the dump. We would rather give something away then to throw it away.  We do our best to please all of the people we deal with, we hold tight to our integrity and our hearts knowing that we are doing the best job possible for everyone involved. 

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rates

We are glad for you to read this part. You should read up on these costs and fees from every company before you make a decision on who will handle your estate sale. We generally try to do all of the tasks, which then reduces fees. However, sometimes this is not possible and we will need to hire staff to assist us.

You will pay nothing up front (unless you choose the clean-out option). The Clean-Out Option will cost from $500 and up to a several thousand depending on magnitude of the task. This will need to be paid up front.

A normal on property sale, we will pay all costs up front. You will not have to pay anything up front. We are reimbursed from the sale's gross proceeds. The commission rate you pay is taken from the net of the sale and not from the gross. This allows us both to share the burden of cost of the preparation of the property as well as the manning of the sale.

Challenge of Project
Preparation Time
Hours Needed to Research Values
Marketing and Advertising
Distance from our office and fuel for vehicles
Cost of food for sales crew
Supplies to prepare and run the sale
Workers needed to complete the sale

Other fees and cost may come up and you will know in advance. Expect to pay 25 to 30% of the net sales in commission. The average sale costs 20-30% of the gross proceeds to run, which we pay out of pocket and are then reimbursed to our company prior to splitting the proceeds with the family. A list of costs is shown above. You should be aware that clean-outs and dump fees as well as house cleaning will be taken from the family net of the take and will be noted on the sales reconciliation.

Ensure you research how some estate sale companies take you for your money. We will always do what is best for you and we want you to be informed on how some people will cheat you out of what is rightfully yours. A happy customer will always refer us to others and we appreciate and look forward to helping others you know. If we bring anything to your sale for us to sell, we will include it in the gross sale amounts. We will never lower an item for our benefit and we will never hide times to sell cheaper later in the sale.

An honest company will pay people, taxes to the state, city and county for all monies due and earned. An honest company receives just around 25-30% of the net of an estate sale, except for a pull-sale. This happens because you take the entire process and break it up into events and proceeds taken, by the end of the estate sale, there is not as much left as one would think.

Example:

The estate sells $10,000 gross in two and a half days of open hours totaling anywhere from 20-30 hours. To give the sale, we must first prepare and clean the premises. No one wants to come into a dirty or messy home for a sale. Everything needs to be ready as much as possible. The workers cleaning are given 1 to 2 meals a day depending on the hours they worked to clean the property. We will also buy our workers coffee, water and drinks while they are working.

We utilize independent contractors when needed. We do not want anyone that will be helping with the sale cleaning. This takes the element out that they will put something aside for themselves or others before the sale. If they are hired they spend their time cleaning and staging the property and they are not permitted to take part in the actual sale.

We then have advertising your sale. Along with emails, websites, you want to spend money on fliers. They are a good tool in getting the word out about the sale to ensure the turn out is great.

Proper signage is important also and the removal of the signs after the sale. All of these combined costs are normally from $150-$300.00, of course there are variables that will increase these fees at times.

We then have the staff. We will need staff to ensure that everything goes smoothly. We don't want 20 sales going on at once and only one person staffing the sale. It is always good to have snacks and refreshments for these people and at times for the clients as well that are there to shop. The average sell will take from 2 to 12 people to run. Many variables depend on the number. How big the property is as well as the amount of expensive items that needs to be secured. On a $10,000 sale, there would normally be 6 staff and 175 hours during the sale itself. That comes to about $1,750.00 of labor during the sale hours.

The final clean up of the sale is also to consider. This will usually take 2-3 men or women about 6 hours each or 18 hours. This does not include dump runs and hauling hours which is paid from the family end of the proceeds only. This is an option on your contract unless you do it yourself.

Adding all this up, we can easily spend:
prep hours/food $2,000 (much less if we can do everything ourselves)
advertising $200
sale labor $1,750 (much less if we can do everything ourselves)
food for public $200 (depends on the location and sale, most sales do not need this expense at all)
cleanup labor after sale $180
Total average cost to run a $10,000 gross sale is approximately $4,350. Also consider the sales tax on the gross sales and is usually 40% of the gross sales. The other 60% would be sold to dealers with resale certificates and you do not charge sales tax to them.

Of course if you consider a $60,000 dollar sale, the numbers are way better. Therefore it is to our advantage to receive the most we can for the sale.

You can do all of this yourself, but as you can see, there is a lot involved and the Estate Sale Company does not make that much once everything is paid out for all the work they do.