Estate Executor Planning Guide
Written by Jack Westover, Yardy founder
A plain-language guide for the family member who just got named executor — how to plan and run an estate liquidation across the Southeast without burning out, fighting siblings, or leaving money on the table.
What an executor actually has to do in the first 30 days
Nobody tells you this when they hand you the title. In the first 30 days you will: order 10-15 certified death certificates from the funeral home (banks, insurance, Social Security, the DMV, and probate court each want an original), file the will at the county Probate Court, get Letters Testamentary that prove you can sign for the estate, notify Social Security and any pension, lock the house and change at least one lock, freeze credit at all three bureaus to stop posthumous identity theft, and start a simple ledger of every dollar in and out of the estate. None of this is the estate sale. The estate sale is week 5 or 6. The first month is the unglamorous administrative load, and it cannot be skipped.
Hire a company or DIY? The math and the energy cost
A real example. A 3-bedroom Charleston home with 40 years of furniture, kitchen, garage, and closets — call it a $50K household at retail-replacement value. An estate-sale company will typically net the family $10-18K gross at sale (about 25-35% of retail-replacement) and keep 30% commission, so the family clears $7-12K. DIY on the same household, run well over 6 weekends with Yardy listings and Craigslist, might gross $8-14K with no commission — so the family clears $8-14K but spends 60-100 personal hours. The financial gap is smaller than people expect. The real question is energy. If you are out of state, still working full time, or grieving and barely sleeping, the company is worth it even at 40%. If you live 20 minutes from the house, are between jobs or retired, and want some control over how a parent\'s things are handled, DIY can be the right call. There is no wrong answer — just don\'t convince yourself you have time you don\'t have.
How estate-sale companies price (and where they leave money)
Most companies (Caring Transitions chapters, Blue Moon, MaxSold-staffed sales, regional firms across the Southeast) charge 25-40% commission on gross sales, with a minimum of $2,500-5,000 to cover staffing for smaller estates. The good ones earn it: they bring 6-10 staff for setup and sale days, price 2,000-5,000 items in 3-4 days, handle the Saturday crowds, run a numbered-line system, and clean out the house Monday morning. Where they leave money: furniture is consistently underpriced because they want it gone (a $300 Knoll chair becomes $80 at 1 PM Sunday), and silver/jewelry/coins often go fast and cheap to the first dealer through the door. If you have specific high-value pieces — silver flatware sets, signed jewelry, mid-century furniture with maker labels, framed original art — pull them before the company arrives and sell those separately to a specialty dealer or auction house. The company\'s job is volume; one piece worth $2,000 is a rounding error for them and a meaningful chunk of the family\'s take-home.
If you DIY: the 60-day timeline that actually works
- Week 1-2: paperwork, probate filing, lock the house, freeze credit, ledger setup.
- Week 3: family walkthrough. Every adult heir gets a colored sticker (red, blue, green) and one weekend to claim heirlooms and sentimental items. Anything with two stickers goes to a 5-minute conversation, not a 6-month feud.
- Week 4: pull high-value items for separate sale (silver, jewelry, art, mid-century furniture with labels). Get one appraisal on anything you suspect is worth $1K+.
- Week 5: sort, group, and price the rest. Use a price-everything-Saturday approach with two people, $5/$10/$20 floor pricing on most items, individual tags only on anything above $50.
- Week 6: list the sale on Yardy, Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, and the county newspaper. Post Wednesday for a Friday/Saturday open. Add "estate sale" in the title — buyers and resellers both search the term.
- Sale weekend: Friday preview 4-7 PM (dealers and serious buyers come here), Saturday 8 AM-3 PM (general public), Sunday 9 AM-1 PM at 50% off (clearance).
- Monday morning: pre-booked junk haul and Habitat ReStore pickup empty the house in one day.
Family heirlooms: distribute first, sell after
This is the single biggest source of estate-sale regret and family blowups: a piece sold at the sale that one sibling wanted, and nobody asked. Hold the family walkthrough before any pricing, sorting, or company-signing happens. Set ground rules up front: every adult heir gets one weekend to claim items, one colored sticker per person, conflicts get resolved by short conversation or a coin flip, and once the walkthrough is over the rest is for sale. Photograph everything claimed and keep a list (this protects you as executor if a sibling later asks where Mom\'s ring went — "your sister claimed it April 18, here\'s the photo"). Grandkids and in-laws get included only if all the primary heirs agree. The walkthrough takes a weekend, prevents three years of resentment, and is part of your job as executor — not an emotional indulgence.
What to do with unsold items on Monday morning
Even a good sale leaves 15-30% of inventory behind. Have the exit plan booked before the sale weekend, not after — a house full of unsold furniture on Monday is the most demoralizing part of the whole process. The four-lane exit:
• Junk removal (1-800-Got-Junk, College Hunks, LoadUp): $400-900 per truck-load, same-day or next-day. Worth the cost for trash, broken items, and anything not worth donating.
• Habitat for Humanity ReStore: free pickup for furniture in working condition, books out 2-4 weeks so call before the sale, not after. Receipt counts as a charitable deduction.
• Goodwill or Salvation Army: drop off clothes, kitchenware, books, lamps. Some Salvation Army locations still do pickup.
• Online resale (Facebook Marketplace, eBay, Yardy): only for individual items worth $50+ that you\'re willing to store and ship over 4-8 weeks. Don\'t extend the estate timeline 2 months to sell a $40 bookcase.
Probate, estate inventory, and the IRS
Three things every executor needs to understand even if a lawyer is handling the filings. Probate: most Southeast states (SC, GA, NC, FL, TN, VA, AL) require the will be filed at the county Probate Court within 30 days, after which you receive Letters Testamentary — the legal document that proves you can sign for the estate, sell its property, and close its bank accounts. Estate inventory: most states require a sworn inventory of estate assets, usually due 60-90 days after Letters are issued. Take date-of-death photos of the contents of every room before you sell anything. Save every estate-sale receipt and final-day take-home check from the company. Taxes: inherited property gets "stepped-up basis" — the IRS treats the cost basis as the fair market value on the date of death, not what the deceased paid 40 years ago. So a $20 toaster sold for $5 isn\'t a $5 gain, it\'s a $15 loss, and most household items will sell at a loss. The household sale itself usually generates no taxable income. High-value items (art, jewelry, vehicles, collectibles over $5K) need a date-of-death appraisal for the IRS Form 706 if the estate is above the federal exemption ($13.99M as of 2025). Below the federal exemption, most estates owe nothing federally but may owe state-level estate tax in a handful of states. Talk to a CPA or estate attorney before the sale, not after — fixing it after is 10x the cost.
How Yardy fits in
Yardy aggregates 23 sources (estatesales.net, estatesales.org, estatesale.com, gsalr, GarageSaleFinder, Craigslist, and 17 more) into one map covering 81 cities across SC, GA, NC, FL, TN, VA, and AL. For an executor running a DIY sale, listing on Yardy puts your sale in front of local buyers, neighborhood shoppers, and the reseller dealers who arrive Friday night to clear silver, jewelry, and mid-century furniture — exactly the buyers who pay best for an estate\'s high-value pieces. Listing is free, takes about 5 minutes, and the listing syndicates to the saved-search alerts that resellers and serious buyers across the Southeast subscribe to. List your estate sale on Yardy →
Find sales nearby to gauge demand
Before you commit to a date, spend 15 minutes looking at estate sales already running in your area. How many are happening this weekend? What categories are they emphasizing — furniture, tools, jewelry, books? What start times work? Walking through one or two before yours opens is the fastest way to calibrate pricing, signage, and crowd expectations for your own sale weekend. Browse this weekend's sales →
Related guides
- How to host a yard sale
- Moving sale checklist
- Yard sale permits by state
- Yard sale donation drop-off