Choosing the Right Way to Sell

When you're downsizing, settling an estate, or selling the contents of a home, deciding what to do with everything can be confusing.

Should you have an estate sale? Send valuable pieces to auction? Consign the furniture? And how do you know which items belong where?

The answer often isn't one or the other. Each selling method works particularly well for certain types of property, and a home with quality furnishings, art, antiques, jewelry, designer clothing and special collections may benefit from using more than one method.

When Does an Estate Sale Make Sense?

An estate sale can be an efficient solution when a home contains a large volume and broad range of household contents that need to be sold within a defined period of time.

Estate sales can work especially well for everyday furniture, decorative accessories, household goods and other items that are best sold together rather than individually marketed over a longer period.

However, particularly valuable or specialized property may deserve separate evaluation before being included in an estate sale.

Learn more about our Estate Sale Services →

When Is Consignment a Better Choice?

Consignment can be an excellent choice for desirable furniture, art, home décor and other pieces that benefit from showroom presentation and exposure to buyers specifically shopping for quality home furnishings.

Designer, unique, antique, mid-century and high-quality contemporary furniture may have much better returns if marketed individually and allowed to be sold for months, rather than days, as a part of a larger household sale.

Consignment generally allows more time to find the right buyer, making it particularly useful when maximizing value is more important than selling everything immediately.

Learn more about Consigning with The Refind Room →

When Should You Consider Auction?

Auction may be the right marketplace for fine art, jewelry, antiques, important objects, rare or unusual pieces, and significant collections—particularly when competitive bidding or exposure to a broader group of collectors may help establish a higher market value.

Research can be especially important before sending property to auction. Artist attribution, maker, age, provenance, condition, rarity and recent comparable sales can all influence both value and the appropriate marketplace.

Through Woodard Lipe Fine Art & Auction, appropriate property can be researched, cataloged and offered to collectors nationally and internationally, beyond the local St. Louis market.

Learn more about Woodard Lipe Fine Art & Auction →

What If a Home Contains All Three?

That's common—and it's why choosing the selling method before evaluating the property can be a mistake.

A single home might contain designer furniture best suited for high-end consignment, fine art appropriate for auction, and hundreds of ordinary household items that make sense in an estate sale.

Separating those categories before the estate sale can help ensure that valuable property receives the research, presentation and exposure it deserves while the remainder of the household is handled efficiently.

Which Option Will Bring the Highest Price?

There isn't one selling method that always produces the highest price.

The better question is: Which marketplace is most likely to have the right buyer for this particular piece of property?

A desirable designer chair may perform beautifully in a furniture showroom. A painting may need an auction audience. A collection may require specialized research and marketing. Everyday household contents may sell most efficiently through an estate sale.

Understanding the property first allows the selling strategy to follow.

Start With the Property, Not the Selling Method

At The Refind Room and Woodard Lipe Fine Art & Auction, we work with individuals, families, executors and trustees to evaluate property and determine the most appropriate way to sell it.

You don't need to decide whether you need an estate sale, auction or consignment before you contact us. That's part of what we help determine.

Call 314-962-7666 to schedule a complimentary estate consultation.

Start with an Estate Consultation →