An estate sale or estate liquidation is a sale or auction

Auction

An auction is a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bid, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder...

 to dispose of a substantial portion of the materials owned by a person who is recently deceased or who must dispose of his personal property to facilitate a move.

Reasons for an estate sale

The most common reason for an estate sale is the death of the property owner, and the consequent need to quickly liquidate the deceased's belongings. The survivors may have no interest in the bulk of the personal belongings left by the deceased, or may simply lack space to keep the belongings. In situations in which the survivors cannot agree to the disposition of tangible property

Tangible property

Tangible property in law is, literally, anything which can be touched, and includes both real property and personal property , and stands in distinction to intangible property....

, a court may order the goods to be sold in an estate sale with the proceeds to be divided among the survivors. Such a sale and division may also be mandated in the will

Will (law)

A will or testament is a legal declaration by which a person, the testator, names one or more persons to manage his/her estate and provides for the transfer of his/her property at death...

 of the deceased.

An estate sale may also occur because the property owner will be moving or has moved into a situation where he will be unable to keep his property—for example, a move to an assisted living

Assisted living

Assisted living residences or assisted living facilities provide supervision or assistance with activities of daily living ; coordination of services by outside health care providers; and monitoring of resident activities to help to ensure their health, safety, and well-being.Assistance may...

 facility, a retirement community

Retirement community

A retirement community, or active adult community, is a very broad, generic term that covers many varieties of housing for retirees and seniors - especially designed or geared for people who no longer work, or restricted to those over a certain age . It differs from a retirement home which is a...

, a rest home, or other living quarters.

Conduct

Estate sales are usually conducted by a professional, for a percentage of the revenues. The liquidator may also charge the estate for the costs to give the sale, including advertising, marketing, research, labor, security, refreshments and other fees incurred in giving a successful sale. The presence of a professional liquidator may be necessary because the scope of the process is likely to be overwhelming to the survivors. The liquidator often has a loyal following, consisting of dealers, collectors and the general public. The liquidator may be familiar to buyers who have been attending the liquidator's sales for decades, and trust that the liquidator will price wisely and fairly and steer them toward finding their niches within each collector's realm, and for the specialist's knowledge and experience with pricing items, and general value knowledge of all types of household goods and personal property value, and the specialist's experience in disposing of unsold goods in an unsentimental manner after the sale. These professionals often take a percentage of the net proceeds, anywhere from 20% to 45%.