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POSTED: Sunday, Mar. 22, 2009

Estate sales give seniors chance to downsize

Franny Erickson, a Bellingham antiques dealer turned estate sale professional, helps local seniors downsize.

"There's a big trend toward using estate sales professionals to downsize," says Erickson, who has more than two decades of experi-ence in pricing antiques. "It isn't just the families of loved ones who have passed away."

The idea, says Erickson, whose business, Eartha Kitty's Estate Sales, is named in memory of her former antique store, is to help pay for moving and provide often much-needed cash reserves.

That's where a Bellingham business run by a married couple, Jeff Bassett and Nancy Ernst, can help.

They have a three-pronged business: two full-size stores, Diamond Antiques and Consign Northwest, along with their estate sale firm.

When Erickson offers a valuable item in an estate sale and it doesn't sell, she consigns the item to Bassett and Ernst on behalf of Erickson's client.

"It's win-win-win for everyone - myself, Jeff and Nancy, and the client," Erickson says. "We don't want to be giving away a valuable item when we can consign it to Jeff and Nancy for display."

In light of the trend toward senior downsizing, Bassett says it provides more opportunities for all.

"In today's society, older people have many more choices than they used to," he says. "This is definitely creating more need for estate sales."

Lenni Peskin of Bellingham, who recently moved from a house in the Samish Neighborhood to an apartment in Fairhaven, says she was gratified to know that her long treasured oak Hoosier kitchen queen cabinet would be sold for fair value, even if not at her estate sale.

"I really wanted to take the Hoosier with me because I've loved it so, but when I measured the apartment very carefully, I realized there was just no place for it," Peskin says.

In this case, the valued item sold for a price agreeable to everyone on the second day of the sale, but otherwise it would have gone to Consignment Northwest.

"We really like being able to help people three ways with their downsizing," Bassett says. "People who have a few valuable items can consign them to us, or sell them outright for our Diamond Antiques. We don't have to heavily discount valuable merchandise that doesn't sell at an estate sale."

'MOST VALUE'

Senior move managers sometimes run their own estate sales, but also often contract with estate sale professionals, either for accurate pricing or to run the sale.

"The idea is to network to get the most value for our clients, and to make the best use of all our time," Erickson says.

"When people hire an estate sale professional," Bassett says, "they tend to end up making at least as much money, if not more, than they would if they ran the sale themselves, and they don't have to do all that heavy work."

Bassett and Ernst give receipts for everything, so downsizers can see a complete accounting.

Peskin, 62, never knew how much she would appreciate an estate sale until she found herself suddenly in need of such a service.

"I'd lived in the house for six years, but I found that financially, I couldn't afford to keep living here, and I also found myself facing challenges with stairs and a house on a hill," she says. "It's a big house for one person, and I realized I really wanted to downsize."

Much to her relief, "The house sold in two days."

Peskin, however, needed Erickson's skills with "due diligence."

"You have to know where to look for the information about so many things, and I wouldn't know that," Peskin says. "I wouldn't have known the value of 99 percent of those things. To me, the value is in the emotional attachment."

That's why she carted her beloved doll collection to her new abode, along with china, cabinets and whatever fit.

"I tell everyone who's moving to measure everything carefully," Peskin says. "There's no point in taking over too much stuff. There were a couple of things, though, that I told myself I was going to keep, even if I had to put them on my bed.!

"What's also important is the emotional support in a move like mine. Franny made it fun and we laughed a lot."

Erickson sees plenty of emotions as well as furniture and kitchenware as she prepares for estate sales. For some clients, she recom-mends being elsewhere during the sale; for others, the experience is OK.

Bassett says people should think hard about a willingness to let a prized possession go.

"I tell people it's better to hang onto something if you have a real emotional attachment," he says. "When in doubt, hang on. I also tell people not to throw anything away. I tell them if something is trash, we'll dispose of it for them."

Ernst, however, makes sure to request that people designate what's not for sale. Many people will pack these items in a room marked "no entry" if they haven't completed the move from the house.