How To Start An Estate Sale Company: The Ultimate Guide

If you’re reading this blog, there’s a good chance you want to start (or have already started) an estate sale company. Right?

If so, keep reading…this post is going to help you a lot.

Throughout this guide, we’ll help walk you through the main steps you need to take in order to get started from initial business formation, how to get your first paying clients, what estate sale software tools the pros in the industry use, and more.

To be candid with you upfront, there’s a ton of hard work that goes into starting and running an estate sale company (as any fellow owner/operator will hopefully tell you). But if you’re serious about it and willing to put in the work and continue to learn as you go…it can be an amazing business & very fulfilling in the families you serve.

We’ll break this guide into four main chapters:

• Initial Business Formation
• How To Get Your First Estate Sales Clients
• Software/Tools Estate Sale Owners Use
• Conclusion

Let’s dive in…

Initial Business Formation

Before anything else, you’ll want to handle the initial business formation steps.

For this, you’ll start with picking your business name.

Choosing An Estate Sale Business Name

Note: if you already have a business name or have done the first steps below, you can simply scroll down a bit + skip to the next section below. You should probably double check that your name meets the criteria below though.

Before you choose a business name, impulse buy 500 pretty business cards, and fall in love with the name you have in mind, I’d strongly recommend you take a moment to read through these 3 easy steps below (in order). It’ll save you a lot of time later.

1) Professional Business Name + Easy To Type

You want to pick a professional name, ideally one that’s somewhat easy to type.

This step may seem obvious, but it matters a ton in this industry. Your future clients/families are putting trust in you to help with their estate sale. On first impression, they’re going to think more highly about Hearthstone Estate Sales vs Krazy Klosets Estate Sales. It’s also much easier to type.

2) Research if the Business Name Already Exists

Do a quick google search (or 3) to see if the business name you have in mind for your new estate sales company comes up at all (and already exists).

If it does, that might be fine as the bulk of companies in this industry are regionally based. For example, there’s multiple estate sale companies in the US with the name, Premier Estate Services. If one is based in Texas and another is in the state of Washington, that might be fine as they are nowhere near each other.

If you have an overlapping name like this in mind but aren’t locked into the name yet, we generally recommend picking a name that isn’t the same (if you’re able). Doing so also helps make it easier from a branding perspective whenever it’s typed online.

3) Pick a Website/Domain Name

Once you have a business name and have researched the name a bit based on our recommendations above, you now should probably get a website/domain name.

A few of you might be asking yourselves, what the heck is a domain name again?

Good question. In short, your domain name is your website's address on the internet. They type it into their browser bar (Google, etc) to find you and it’s used for search engines -> example: AwesomeEstateSales[.]com.

It’s good to check if the matching domain name for your business is available.

An easy way to do this is to open up a new separate tab while you’re reading this and go to InstantDomainSearch.com. As you type out a domain name, you’ll see in real time if it’s available or taken.

Even if you don't plan to build a website today, having a domain (website name) that matches your business name is helpful. Once you see a domain name that you like, simply go to a domain registrar like Cloudflare or GoDaddy and purchase it (they’re super cheap- around $10-15/year).

Don’t fret if the exact name followed by .com isn’t available. You can always use a slight variation, while still ensuring it’s easy enough to type if needed.

Next…once you’re comfortably set with a business name, you’ll want to formally register your business in the state you’re operating and doing business in….if you haven’t already.

This step can happen before (or in parallel with) choosing your business name, but we generally recommend researching and deciding on a name first for the reasons mentioned above.

For most new estate sales businesses, forming an LLC (Limited Liability Corporation) is often the best choice because it provides personal liability protection while remaining relatively simple to set up.

The business registration process is slightly different in each state. You can Google search “Your State” LLC formation or “Your State’ business registration. Skip the ads at the top of the search results. When you find the official state website, it’ll walk you through those steps for starting your estate sales business.

Most of them have a phone number you can call too!

Apply for an EIN Number

After your business is registered in your state/region, you'll also want to apply for a Employer Identification Number (EIN) from the IRS. It’s free and essential to running your business.

In short, your EIN number is used to open a business bank account (for your business if needed), file taxes, and is often required by payment processors and other business services.

Open a Business Bank Account

Once your business is registered and you have an EIN number, it's generally a good idea to open a separate business bank account.

Why?

Keeping business and personal finances separate makes accounting much simpler and helps reinforce the separation between you and your business.

Once you get the above set, you’re almost there in terms of initial business formation for your new estate sale business.

One more important step (or steps) is needed though.

What is it?

Insurance, Permits, Licenses, and Local Requirements

Before your first estate sale which may be soon (or to be determined), make sure you understand the insurance and licensing requirements for your area.

This cannot be an afterthought…

Most every estate sales businesses carries some type of general liability insurance, and depending on your services, you may also need other coverage or specific permits (seller's, sales tax, workers comp, home occupation permit to name a few).

Licensing and permit requirements vary a ton by state, county, and city. Some areas may require a general business license, sales tax registration, or other permits before you begin operating.

In Illinois for example, they regulate estate sales and online auctions more strictly than many other states. If you planned to operate and run sales and your business here, you’d need to obtain a specific Illinois Estate Sale (or Auctioneer) License from the state.

Every state (and local regions within them) may have different rules…or lack thereof.

If you're unsure what applies to your business in your particular state, spend a little bit of time researching your local requirements (and consider speaking with an attorney if needed).

Taking care of these items early can help you avoid unnecessary issues later.

To quickly recap what we’ve just covered, below is an initial business formation checklist.

New Estate Sale Business Formation Checklist

Whether you already have the above partially (or fully) set up or you’ve just read through it now and plan to come back and reference it later, you now have a much better idea on what you need.

Let’s move on to the next section…

Now that your business is formed (or it will be soon)…great.

The above is important to have set in order to operate, but that’s the easy part.

Once your business (LLC, etc) is setup, you now need to attract your first few clients.

Contract (insert some example templates)- mention it’ll change a ton- make it relatable.

How To Get Your First Clients

Now that your business entity is set up, now comes the real work….getting your first sale.

So how do you get your first clients for your estate sales business?

Depending on a number of factors…your first estate sale might just fall in your lap (by luck, a referral) or it might take months of waiting.

Our pro tips below are aimed at helping you speed this process up…and to increase the chances of you landing your first few sales.

We could probably write a book on this topic of getting new clients, but for sake of time and to give you a ton of value right now, we’ll cover the primary ways to go about it. You can naturally expand on each from there.

Let’s break it down into a few categories:

• Website
• Social Media
• Email/Newsletter
• Referrals
• Word of Mouth

Estate Sale Company Website

Having an initial website that allows prospective clients (families) to review your services can help encourage them on why they should go with you over all other options. Depending on how competitive the estate sales industry is in your region, having a polished website from Day 1 may (or may not) be necessary, but having a clean website that’s mobile friendly with several pages is helpful.

As we’ll touch on in a moment, your website is one of a few places where it’s an owned channel (meaning you’re in full control of it)

Social Media

The next one on our list is obvious, but it’s important for you to have some added info and insights on it to consider when you’re creating social media accounts.

You want to be on the platforms where prospective buyers can surface your business (for sales, items you display, and so on). Keep in mind though that for every platform you have, you or someone on your team has to manage it.

In our experience having talked with estate sale owners and operators across North America, we’ve found that it helps to start by creating a couple accounts on the primary platforms (Facebook, Instagram, etc) and expand from there.

There’s a lot of good reasons to be active for your business on social media and figuring out which platforms deliver the best results for you, but you MUST remember that all social media accounts across the board are what we refer to as a “rented channel.”

What do you mean by rented channel?

Unlike a website or email list (we’ll cover this next), social media accounts are fully run by the company. If Facebook (or any platform) decides to change their algorithm tomorrow and cuts half of your reach to the audience you’ve built, there’s nothing you can do about it.

Any business owner that’s had a social media account for a business knows this. Even as individuals who use social media, you see more over time that the timelines fill with ads and reach for business pages get squeezed.

In the estate sales industry, you’ll see even today that quite a number of owners (maybe some you know) operate their Facebook page as if it’s the front door to their business. Some have links to a website that lead to a social media page.

If your business has new leads flowing in the door and your waitlist is 3-6 months out, this might be fine, but we don’t recommend doing this…especially for newer estate sale businesses trying to establish their business in their area.

As a business owner, keep in mind that you want to be spending the most time on social media where there are actually end buyers who will either buy items from you, tell others, and/or come to your upcoming sales. Getting 100k TikTok views on a video might seem exciting at first glance, but it’s a vanity metric if 99.9% of those viewers are from people on the other side of the country (or world)....who won’t contribute to the success of the sale you’re advertising. Being aware of this can save you a lot of time.

So that you don’t spread yourself out too thin…pick 1-2 social media channels you’ve seen others use and begin there.

Yes…you still want to be on these social channels and creating relevant content…you just want to diversify so that you’re not reliant on one channel for distribution. Make sense?

Email Newsletter

In the early days of running your estate sales company, you probably won’t start out by having a targeted email list already in hand (unless you came from an adjacent industry). That’s fine.

The reason we recommend estate sale operators start an email list early on as they start is that email is a channel that you fully own. You have direct access to the other side. Sure, if you spam your email list and they all unsubscribe, you lose that line of communications…but your (hopefully) not planning to do that.

If done right, email can be a great complimentary distribution channel for you. Whenever you have an upcoming sale, it’s a great way to inform people directly about when/where it is.

An email list like this will likely start out small- that’s completely normal.

Over time though, it can and will become more powerful. There’s several ways to take it a step further…one of those is to identify super buyers (that will drive hours for certain category items- ex: glassware) to be more frequent visitors to your sales.

Estate Sale Referrals

Next on our list is a big one…referrals.

When you’re starting a new business in the estate sales industry, how fast or slow referrals roll in will of course depend on your prior network/connections, your experience, and a variety of other factors ranging from how saturated the market is to the demand for sales from prospective clients.

Where do you get referrals for newer estate sales businesses?

Good question.

The main sources are from other estate sale companies and trusted professionals in complimentary industries (ex: realtors, probate and estate attorneys, nursing homes, etc).

We’ll start with getting referrals from other estate sale and liquidation businesses in the industry. If you’re new to the industry, you might be asking yourself, why would another company give me a potential client of theirs.

This happens for a number of reasons.

A common reason is that they (the well established estate sale company) are highly in demand and might have a waitlist that is 3-6+ months out.

If a family comes to them, they’re selling a house in 1 month, and they’re in need of a sale in that shortened window, they’ll likely recommend another provider in town who they trust.

If you’re newer to the industry, it can sometimes help to build up some rapport with other more established companies in town.

Obviously there’s situations and regions where this happens more (or less), but it’s one area where referrals take place…and a helpful option for new owners + operators to consider as they’re getting started.

Following this, a major driver for referrals (and word of mouth- which we’ll cover below) are from trusted local professionals in the region you operate

Referrals From Professionals in Complimentary Industries

One of the best long term lead sources for estate sale owners are by professionals in complimentary industries such as:

• Realtors
• Attorneys (probate, etc)
• Nursing/Funeral homes
• Property & Moving Managers
• among many others

This one naturally takes a bit longer to get going fully as you need to build up credibility + trust in the industry, but over time this source of referrals can help immensely. Just because it takes time doesn’t mean you should avoid planting seeds here early on though.

Here’s a couple easy ways to increase the likely of referrals for this…

Reach out to those complimentary professionals in the areas you serve to introduce yourself.

This might seem obvious, but in your outreach here to say a local realtor or an attorney, be a human being- an initial touchpoint is meant to show that you’re a nice person that can bring value to them- it’s NOT a sales pitch.

Introduce yourself and in doing so, let them know that you’re available if they have any clients/families in need. Sure, many of these people will have another estate sale company (or 2) they have referred to, but it can’t ever hurt to be another one of them.

If you’re speaking to them in-person, sharing a simple brochure or business can usually works fine. If it’s online, a simple and easy to scan pdf alongside a conversationally written email works too. Keep it simple and clear regarding what you do and who you serve.

Word of Mouth

Word of mouth overlaps quite a bit with the above section because many of these folks will be the ones referring people to you & your business.

Over time, word of mouth referrals as a traffic source should hopefully start to happen more.

Delivering a good experience for clients/families and being known as a high quality estate sale operation are a few of the biggest reasons why people will come to you.

When you’re starting out especially, it can often help to be known for a specific area or sub niche within the industry.

For example, maybe there’s a couple other estate sale companies in your area that have been around for decades, but their waitlists are 3-6+ months out.

Whenever a realtor, probate attorney, or family has a client that needs to be out of a house in say 8 weeks, you might be a great go to if the contents of the house align for a healthy sale.

Keeping Track of Referral Sources

Try as best as you can to keep track of where your leads are coming from.

If there’s a certain attorney, funeral home, realtor, or person(s) who’s driving quality business to you, you want to know about it.

Keeping track of your best referral sources can help you identify more people like them. If you’re seeing success with one, that might be an area to double down on and build more relationships in.

It also keeps you informed so you can acknowledge their generous referrals (ex: writing them a thank you email, a letter in snail mail, a surprise restaurant gift certificate, etc).

Software & Tools Estate Sale Owners Use

Running an estate sale business as an owner and operator is no walk in the park.

Early on, you’re wearing a large number of hats from client communication to comping/pricing and staging to ensuring the sale runs as smoothly as it can start to finish….just to name a few. A number of you reading this are likely years in and you’re still nodding you’re head like, “Yep, I still wearing a lot of these hats.”

Below are a few of the must have components, tools, and software that successful estate sale owners use:

Website

In today’s age, having an easy to type domain name (ex: MostlyGoodStuff[dot]com) that reflects your business name is expected. Your website will be hosted somewhere as well so it can be surfaced online.

A website not only better informs prospective clients (and buyers) who you are, but it importantly informs search engines who you are and the area(s) your business serves.

Depending on the area you serve, the number of competitors you have, and so on, the quality of your site may play a bigger/smaller role in the early days.

As we mentioned earlier, a website is a platform that you fully own. A website can importantly go hand in hand with your email list and social media pages.

Estate Sales dot net

Alongside the above, estatesales[.]net is one of the long standing choices that estate sale owners use when it comes to listing upcoming sales and making buyers in their area aware of them.

They offer a few different pricing tiers depending on how much you’d like to market your sales with them, how many sales you run (or plan to run), and so on.

Many buyers in your area (who may want to attend your sale) look at their listings so using them for distribution can help early on.

Estate Flow

In terms of ensuring your estate sales run smoothly from start to finish so your hair is not on fire, Estate Flow is the primary go-to tool and software that estate sale owners use for every sale.

From speeding up you (and your teams) comping/pricing, managing inventory, printing/tagging as you stage a house…all the way to post-sale and smoothly having all the documents you need for bookkeeping, Estate Flow (insert link to demo) has it all.

Starting out with using and getting acclimated with the tools above will save you a lot of time..and headaches. Then, depending on the size of your team, you might also want to use some basic software for time tracking (for a team) if you have more people, a CRM (for contacts) group messaging (Slack), and so on. Start with the above as the essential ones.

Conclusion

Whether you are just starting out with a new estate sale business now or you’ve been around a bit (but you’re trying to make your estate sale company more successful), the steps and tools recommended above will make a world of a difference in terms of how you run your business.

You may not be able to prevent someone from asking for 75% off at 8:05AM on the first day, but you can with the right tools make nearly everything else run more smoothly.