First and foremost: DON’T THROW ANYTHING AWAY! The old adage remains true: “One person’s junk is another’s treasure.” Let the professionals decide what to keep and sell, or what to discard.

Don’t assume that your personal property is not valuable enough for an estate sale. There can be very good money in mundane household effects, non-collectible furniture, daily dishware and silverware, garage tools, etc. Again, let us take a look and decide what our experience tells us your property will bring.  

Don’t do a garage sale yourself to “prepare” for the estate sale. While it’s true you will not have to pay yourself a commission, you will probably also not price items in accordance with the market. Underpricing items obviously wastes money, and overpricing causes things NOT to sell. The professionals pay for themselves in many cases by using years of experience to properly price your property.

DO check out your prospective estate professional. “All estate liquidators charge about the same commission, so they are all probably the same.” Not true. Trust, reputation and integrity are very important in a cash business dealing with untitled items of personal property that are easy to make “disappear”. Check the credentials, background, and references of the estate liquidators you are considering. Find out if they take credit cards (many do not; we do – it increases sales and creates even more of a paper trail, with which we have no problem). Ask for a copy of their bonding and verify the amount. Finally, ask how long they have been doing this, and how many sales they conduct per year.

A word about auctions versus “tag” sales. The general rule is, a “tag” sale (estate sale where all items in the home are priced – this is what we do) usually generates more revenue for the client in a big metropolitan area. There are exceptions, and sometimes a combination of auction and tag sale will make the most sense. We will counsel with you concerning the options that will maximize revenue in your particular situation. We do offer online auctions which is a great option in gated communities or high-rises where a traditional estate sale is not possible. 

Finally, don’t assume we will just discard or donate items of some value at the end of the sale. We frequently store unsold items on a consignment basis for our clients (we have climate controlled, fully insured and alarmed storage), and take them to other sales or offer in an online auction. Rest assured, we will not take a 2-year old leather sofa in perfect condition and donate it to charity or give it away. This is one of the reasons we have our own moving van.  Our services are customized to suit each clients needs. 

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Many individuals have the need to downsize, particularly when moving to retirement communities. These too are conducted exactly like estate sales, and are even called estate sales, even though “moving sales” may be what they really are.  If you don't have enough for a complete estate sale, many times we can combine your things at another sale or include in an online auction. 

JLA Treasures will conduct moving sales with the exact same level of care and professionalism as all of our services. Sometimes when we do a moving sale, we use our crew and our moving van to even move our client (we are the only estate sale company in Dallas that we know of with our own moving van). A large percentage of our business is comprised of moving sales, and we welcome the opportunity to discuss your particular needs with you.

Over the past twenty-four years we have completed sales off of Turtle Creek Boulevard; in both Highland Park and University Park; Lakewood; Preston Hollow; far North Dallas; Kessler Park; Lake Highlands; Addison; Richardson; Plano; Fort Worth, Sherman, Denton, Waco and liquidated an antique store in Jefferson. We’ve sold extremely expensive collectibles and jewels, and bottles of kitchen cleansers. We’ve retailed cars, trucks and vans, and adopted out pets!  We’ve conducted liquidations with gross sales of over $200,000, all the way down to $10,000! We found and sold more than $12,000 worth of diamond jewelry that was hidden in a decedent’s dirty laundry hamper!  We’ve moved clients in, and moved them out (with our own moving van)!When you can't do a sale onsite; we have other options through online aucitons.  NOBODY does more for clients than we do! And NOBODY is more trustworthy!

Examples of the services we provide are:

Pre-sale preparation, decoration of the premises, and pricing

Research items of an apparent or potential significant value

Advertising on this web site, where specific information and pictures of sale items will be available, craigslist.org (if appropriate), on 24-7estatesales.com, estatesales.net, estatesale.com, estatesales.org and by email to our proprietary list of over 4550 dealers and regular customers

Conducting the sale itself (usually two full days)

Motor vehicle disposition handled professionally by retailing the vehicle at the sale ourselves, later consignment, or by auction at true wholesale prices by a dealer associate of ours

Arranging for disposal, consignment (including eBay) or charitable contribution of remaining items.  Please note that charities have significantly limited the donation items and their availability for pickup.

Cleanup of the premises after the sale - home left empty and broom swept  (if desired and arranged) or staged as desired (if professional help is required, JLA will arrange at the client’s expense)

Final accounting and payment to the client

With twenty-four years in the business, and association with the International Society of Appraisers (ISA), www.isa-appraisers.org, we offer ISA-certified and USPAP compliant written appraisals of household goods, antiques and collectibles. We can also appraise both collectible and late-model motor vehicles. This can be performed as a stand-alone service billed on an hourly basis, or done as part of an estate or moving sale. You should also be aware that one of our owners/managers has been a trust and estate professional for 45 years (for more information please visitwww.trustmangroup.com).

Accordingly, we adhere to strict fiduciary principles in the conduct of our business. Conflicts of interest are always avoided. Excellent references from both client families and from professionals handling estates are available upon request.

For more information, or to receive a proposal for your specific needs, please contact us.