Frequently Asked Questions

Never. Consultations are always 100% free and no-obligation. 

You should expect us to arrive on time, to give you honest and straighforward answers to any questions you may have, and to openly discuss the terms of our estate sale agreement in the event you'd like to move forward and schedule an event. 

Successful estate sales happen in all kinds of homes, small and large, from quaint cottages, to downtown condos, to suburban single-family houses, to mansions with a view, and everything in between. The best way to find out if an estate sale is right for you is to schedule a free consultation so that we can give you options and help you decide. 

If your home is still mostly full of furnishings, decor, electronics, and everyday household items (including kitchenwares, books, tools, etc.), chances are good that we can host a successful estate sale. 

If you've already sold, moved, donated, or gotten rid of most of those items, we can provide recommendations for disposing of the leftovers but an estate sale is probably not going to be successful.

Sure thing. Manteca, CA is a popular retirement and second home destination, and as such many estate executors live far from the family home in Manteca, CA. You can provide us access to the home, or we are happy to work with any local representative you might have (realtor, attorney, etc.), and we can handle everything else virtually and by mail. 

We recommend not removing any items, even the ones you think might be worthless or "junk," before we've had a chance to meet with you and evaluate the home's contents. Some items people assume are worthless actually sell very well at estate sales, and small sales add up quickly to money in your pocket!

That being said, we do request that you remove any perishable items, personal paperwork and documents (items like medical records, paystubs, insurance policies, etc.), family photo albums, and any prescription drugs. 

Totally understandable. We ask that you identify those items before or during the initial consultation so that we can accurately assess the sellable contents of the estate and provide you with the best options. 

Any items you want to keep but remain in the home during the sale need to be moved to a room, closet, or section of the home which can be easily partitioned off from the rest of the sale.

Many successful estate sales are held for people getting ready to move to another area, downsizing into a smaller home, or moving into an assisted living or extended care facility. Schedule a consultation with us so that we can discuss your options.

For many reasons, no. 

Shoppers tend to feel uneasy and leave the sales where owners are present, as haggling over the price of an item cherished by a recently passed loved one can make all parties uncomfortable. 

It can be difficult for owners, who oftentimes have sentimental feelings for the contents of the home, to watch shoppers casually dismissing these items, or even making remarks about the design or decor of the home. 

Let us take care of the sale for you, so that you can relax and focus on other priorities. 

You could certainly try, though we wouldn't recommend it unless you've got a lot of help or have done this before. Our experience allows us to prepare a home for an estate sale much more quickly than it would take someone doing it for the first time. We have a network of loyal buyers who show up to almost all of our sales. We know how to price the contents of the home so that they are most likely to sell while maximizing the total sale proceeds. 

Great question. We market your estate sale in a variety of ways to ensure a great turnout on the weekend of the sale. While staging and pricing the contents we will be taking photographs of most items. We post these photos to our own website and social channels, plus several third-party estate sale sites, as well as lisitng certain items on facebook marketplace and similar channels. We also keep in touch with our loyal shoppers, as we know which items are likely to pique their interests. We will place signage throughout the neighborhood directing traffic to the sale. Sometimes we advertise the sale in local newspapers, and we occassionally promote certain items to enthusiasts and collectors from all over the world. 

Our goal is to liquidate the entire contents of the home, but that does not always happen. In the event that there are things left over, we will be happy to present you with options for their removal, or allow you to simply retain what's left. 

We will send you, via USPS priority mail with tracking, a certified bank check along with a report showing total sales, taxes paid, our commission, and your net proceeds within 7 business days (usually faster) following the sale. 

Yes. We will price the items in you home competitively and fairly, but we will always consider reasonable offers, especially when a buyer is purchasing multiple items and when the sale is nearing the close. If there is a short list of items whose price you'd like to be non-negotiable, it is your responsibility to identify those to us at the time of our initial consultation. 

We take pride in what we do, so much so that we've made it our one and only business. That's a rare thing in the estate sales industry. Most other "estate liquidators" are doing this as a supplement to their other primary business. 

Why should that matter? Simple. We believe there is an inherent conflict of interests when someone who owns a consignment store, auction business, or antique store, with shelves to fill, also handles estate sale events. Their primary motivation is to stock their inventory, not to maximize proceeds for you. At Sterling Estate Sales, our interests are aligned with yours, because the ony way we make money is to host the best estate sales events in Manteca, CA. 

We aren't saying you should definitely select us. We are saying that you should definitely select an estate sales professional who specializes only in estate sales.