You probably know a bit about estate sales and what they entail. But, you may still be uncertain about what an estate sale appraisal can offer and what role it plays in the estate sale process. Read on to learn about estate sale appraisals in Milwaukee and the surrounding areas and why they are a valuable endeavor when planning an estate sale or otherwise looking to sell potential valuables.
What is an Estate Sale Appraisal?
An estate sale appraisal is a professional assessment of a home or individual item’s value that is conducted by someone who is experienced and well-informed. Most often, these appraisals are conducted prior to an estate sale to help you determine to price for the home or individual items you’re looking to liquidate. As part of the appraisal process, you receive a written report supporting the value estimate. This report can be used to back up a contested asking price.
Catching Hidden Treasures
It is easy to think that you can take on the task of determining the asking price for your home and estate items. However, doing so without professional help and input can quickly lead to a variety of pitfalls.
First, there is false confidence in the internet and its abundance of information.
While the internet can sometimes offer a reasonable starting point for researching certain items, online information about antiques and rarities is limited. The internet will not be able to tell you if the item you possess is the same, down to its minor details, as the valuables you’re seeing online.
For example, you might find a reproduction mid-century dresser online that looks just like the one you own and assume that your dresser is also reproduction and therefore not terribly valuable. But, it comes down to small, specialized details, like coded serial stamps and construction materials to determine if that dresser is actually an original and worth much more than you might have expected.
Providing Expertise & Discernment
When it comes to catching those small details, your best chance is to hire a professional appraiser who has the know-how to spot them. At Heritage Estate Settlement, we have decades of appraisal experience and have even served as specialists in antiques and collectibles for Milwaukee PBS’s Antiques Roadshow.
Without this experience and knowledge, it is difficult to know what to look for when it comes to any given item or a whole estate. You may not know that a particular metal indicates construction during a certain time period or that an emblem stamped onto the bottom of your china cabinet indicates it’s from a now-defunct company. All these details are part of what an appraiser assesses to determine an appropriate value for an item.
Another thing an appraiser can help you to determine is a fair asking price, which might be slightly different from an appropriate value. While the value of an item might be quite high, a fair asking price in the setting of an estate sale, as opposed to a proper antique store, might be a bit less in order to appeal to the mindset of estate sale shoppers.
Contact Heritage Estate Settlement for Estate Sale Appraisals
At Heritage Estate Settlement, we can help you with every step of the estate sale process, from an estate sale consultation, which is a free service that aims to prepare you for an estate sale, to estate sale appraisal, to the finalization of your sale. We are here to answer your questions and offer our expertise and over 15 years of experience to your appraisal. Contact Heritage Estate Settlement for estate sale appraisals in Milwaukee and the surrounding areas today.