Hiring out services that stress you out

[riverwed070707]

Feeling really overwhelmed with the amount of work that needs to be done before we list our house. We're selling most everything except a few essentials and a couple sentimental pieces we want to store. I know you can hire someone to pack your house... can you also hire someone to declutter your house and get ready for a yard sale/home selling? And if so, what would you think the going rate would be? Would you pay per hour? Per day? For the whole job? I don't really feel like it needs to be a professional service like a mover (although insurance might be a bonus) but I'd like for them to sort and price for the yard sale and maybe even clean as space becomes available. Would anyone in their right mind do this??? Feeling so stressed I'm almost embarrassed to admit how much I'd pay for this service right now.

[disneysteve]

There are definitely companies in my area (southern NJ) who do house sales or tag sales. They come in and price everything in the home that will be sold and then manage the sale - working the "register". I have no clue what cut they take. I've been to these sales many times as a buyer though.

[snafu]

If you plan to 'stage' your home, it's quite a different criteria than for day to day living. You need to decide your target market [couples, family with 1 child, singles who share for example] Each room is set for a specific function.

If you just want to pack up stuff you could hire 2 high school seniors and stack/store the boxes in your secondary storage like shed, garage, basement, under stairs etc. You could hold your yard sales between the time you sell and the new owners take possession or send your stuff to auction to save the hassle of a ya rd sale.

There are several types of 'estate sale' companies that clean, display, arrange sales in your home. They do a nice job but you don't get much money after their fees.

[riverwed070707]

Thanks for the feedback. I'd never seen this before. I spoke to someone who does tag sales and said their fee is 30% of sale price I guess I'm not ruling it out but I'm not sure they would do everything I want them to. If I still have to haul it to the garage and get it ready to sell its not removing the stress factor haha.

Decided to test the waters by putting an ad on craigslist to and bulleted out what I'd like done and that I'd pay $350 for the whole job with the potential to earn additional if the situation is working out. I got *7* responses overnight! haha Few high school students, couple people just looking ot earn extra on the weekends. Not sure exactly how I want to move forward yet but I'm feeling better already... Think I might just dump everything I want out in boxes and then have them move it to the garage and start sorting. Once the house sells, I can have them setup and price things and then I'll just need to take a couple days off to run the sale. Since we're selling everything, the sale should more than cover the fee and it feels like a small price to pay for the relief its giving me.