My husband and I met with Lynne and Dudly Collums of Absolute Estate Sales to have them arrange a sale of household furnishings. They met with us in a timely manner, picked dates for the 3 day sale, and signed a contract with my husband. We chose Absolute Estate Sales because of a recommendation from a friend and based on their website. The website clearly explains the sale process and what they will do before, during, and after the sale. We were impressed by the thoroughness that they showed in their explanations. http://www.absoluteestatesales.net/index.php
During the contract discussion, Dudly asked us what we wanted done with items that were left from the sale. He said that they had a charity that they work with. We asked that they call the charity to remove unsold items. This was agreed on, but it was not put into the contract. He said that the trash would be bagged and put on the back deck. This was stated in the contract.
The Absolute Estate Sale crew came in, marked, and arranged all items. They did an amazing job, since there was a huge amount of furnishings and household items. They took 79 pictures, which they displayed on their website. Their publicity was good. When we drove by the sale, they always had a lot of people there. They took 30% of the proceeds, which seemed reasonable to us and was the agreed upon amount. A check was provided in a timely manner and delivered by registered mail. It cleared, as expected. Overall, we were satisfied with the way our sale was handled by Absolute Estate Sales. They did fulfill all of the terms of the written contract.
However, we did have some surprises. According to the website, a sale recap is to be provided. That did not happen, nor was it in the contract. We had expected a cleared out house. It was not. If a charity was called, as Dudly said it would be, we did not see any sign of it, nor were we provided with a donation slip.
After the sale we were left with unsold items. We removed about 30 boxes of books and 10 bags of clothing. The clothing had been mostly bagged and piled into the bathtub. A sofa bed was left. Most of the trash was on the deck, and so were two older, but working tvs. They were rained on. There was a small amount of trash scattered about the house and garage. Two doors that were taken off their hinges were still off the hinges. I estimate that we had about 24 man-hours of work to do to completely empty the house and dispose of the household items. Perhaps it was our misunderstanding, but we didn't expect this. I would suggest having EVERYTHING spelled out in the contract.
Overall, we were satisfied. I give this company a solid 4 stars. My rating is based on several things. They did a lot of hard work getting ready for the sale and selling our items. I would give them 5 stars for the before and during the sale implementation. After the sale would be about 2 1/2 stars for the lack of follow through. I would be happy to recommend them or to hire them again. read more