Estate Appraisal & Liquidation Services

Serving the San Francisco Bay Area

(415) 626-0460

Our Services

• Security: Our service on behalf of the estate begins with the security of the site. We will tour the estate with members of the family, the Executor, Conservator, or a designated Trusted Witness to change the locks if necessary, turn off all appliances, and both secure and document family heirlooms, keepsakes, cash, bonds, valuable jewelry, business papers, and legal documents. We will also collect all mail and bills and forward them to the appropriate party, and submit a change of address form to the U.S. Postal Service.
  
  
• Inventory & Appraisal: The next step is to take a comprehensive inventory of all items in the residence, have them evaluated by a Certified Appraiser, if appropriate, and submit the list with recommended pricing in both hard copy and electronic form to the Executor or Conservator. Upon request, we will also take digital photographs of all the rooms and selected individual items for insurance, security, and liquidation purposes.
  
  
• Liquidation: There are many ways to liquidate personal property, and we will tailor the methodology to our clients' needs or desires. Our preference is to call upon our extensive network of dealers and buyers throughout our service areas. The advantages of selling to dealers and private buyers rather than staging public sales are several fold:
  
  
  Dealers and private buyers know what they are looking for, the resale or collectible value of the items they want, and are willing to pay more than the general public, who are generally just looking for bargains.
  
  
  Liability and the possibility of accident, breakage, and theft are lowered by inviting several dozen professional buyers and dealers to visit the site instead of hundreds of unknown individuals.
  
  
  Unadvertised private sales reduce the risk of burglary or vandalism of the vacant residence.
  
  
  Our network of dealers and buyers know that they must pay fair prices for items or risk being dropped from our preferred mailing list, whereas many afficianados of estate sales open to the public enjoy bargaining for the lowest possible price.
  
  
  Dealers and professional buyers usually buy multiple items or items in lots, while the general public often buys only one or two items at a time.
  
  
  Holding private sales enables the disposal of personal property more quickly with less expense and risk than holding sales open to the public, because public sales entail the added expense of advertising, advertising lead time, and additional labor to supervise the sale, while generating less money from the sale of items in the personal estate.
  
  However, if the client prefers holding a general estate sale open to the public, we will bring in a bonded cleaning crew to clean the residence and items in preparation for a 3-day onsite estate sale. After professionally staging the for-sale items in attractive displays and making sure each item is priced appropriately, we will then advertise the estate sale through classified ads, the internet, and our own personal list of contacts. Following the preparations, we will hold the estate sale on a consecutive Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and arrange for delivery of larger items such as furniture, if needed, at the buyer's expense.
  
  In addition, valuable items such as rare antiques, coin and stamp collections, and high-value collectibles may be put up for auction through a reputable auction house such as Bonham & Butterfield's or Sotheby's. Other collectibles and reasonably valuable small items may be put up for auction on eBay or other online auction sites. Antiques and valuable items that might not be accepted for sale by an auction house can be placed for consignment sale in appropriate stores.
  
  The remaining items of the estate sale will be offered for sale to various local second hand shops. Items not sold through auction, eBay, onsite sales, or to second hand stores will be donated to a recognized charity for a tax write off to be taken by the estate.
  
  
• Residence: Finally, we will dispose of remaining rubbish and clean the residence, carpets, and floors from wall to wall, leaving the property ready for sale or rent. We will then take digital photographs of the interior and exterior of the property so the out-of-town family, Executor, or Conservator can determine if painting or repairs are necessary to make the property real estate ready. Upon request, we will arrange for bids by 3 competing California licensed contractors to make any needed major repairs or paint the interior or exterior of the building. For minor repairs we will call upon a qualified local handyman.
  
  
• Final Accounting: Upon the conclusion of our services, we will present the appropriate party with an itemized hardcopy and electronic copy of all transactions performed, including original receipts of sales and expenses as well as the photos taken during the performance of our services, so that a complete record is available for legal purposes pertaining to the estate.
  
  
• Third Parties: We will work closely with third parties such as professional fiduciary services firms, real estate brokers, probate attorneys, and accountants to insure that all the needs of the various parties involved in the settling of the estate are met. We can also refer family members to dispute resolution specialists, realtors, probate attorneys, and other professionals if needed.
  
  
• Special Needs: Members of the Graceful Exits team are recognized as expert problem solvers, and we will come up with creative solutions to any problem you may have. For example, if the residence contains firearms the family wants to dispose of instead of selling, we can arrange for the local police department to take them in exchange for a receipt, eliminating any liability should the weapons be found to have been used in a future crime. Other items of little intrinsic value may have great value to certain non-profit historical societies or cultural centers, and we will seek them out to obtain further tax credits for donations.
  
  
• Special Storage: If the residence contains valuable items such as antiques or paintings that must be removed immediately, we can photograph and catalog the individual items for insurance purposes, and then arrange for their security, transportation, and storage in temperature and humidity controlled vaults until such time as the family wishes to liquidate them.
  
  
• Senior Moving Services: We can also help elderly residents of a house move into another residence or care facility. We will be happy to work closely with the conservator or family members to help plan the move, sort and pack their belongings, arrange for shipping of their personal property and furniture, and unpack everything for them at the new location to help them settle in with the least amount of stress over the move. In short, Graceful Exits will do whatever is neccessary to satisy the needs of our clients, with grace and sensitivity to the issues.
  
  
• Vehicles: Vehicles, inluding automobiles, motorcycles, boats, watercraft, and airplanes pose particularly thorny problems for liquidation due to state, federal, and Coast Guard regulations in relation to ownership of them. Nonetheless, we will either find buyers for the vehicles, vessels, and airplanes, or put them up for sale through appropriate reputable brokers, billing the estate for any government mandated sellers fees invloved in the transfer of ownership. Click here for further information regarding liquidation of vehicles.
  
  
• Pets: Working with animal rights and rescue groups, along with Animal Care & Control departments of local governments, we will make every effort to find kind and caring homes for all pets, including dogs, cats, fish, birds, and other animals in the household.

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