The Hidden Advantage of Estate Sales for Realtors, Home Sellers, and Faster Closings

James Major (00:00)
so my main goal is to empty out the house. My second main goal is to make the family money. And the third main goal is the one you’re gonna like. It’s to make that house visible, not only to the realtors, but also to the neighbors and to people out of state that are moving into the area because…

We are getting a lot of big companies, a lot of executives are moving to the area. And by going to estatesales.net, you can find houses in the area you want to live.

Scott Bursey (01:42)
I’m Scott Bursey, your host. And today I’m joined by someone I’ve really been looking forward to chatting with, James Major, who’s been making serious moves in the residential real estate and asset liquidation space. James joins us to pull back the curtain on the world of professional estate liquidation. From identifying hidden gems to managing crowd control and high value appraisals, James helps bridge the gap between a cluttered home and a sold sign. If you’ve ever

Had a listing stalled by too much stuff. This episode is for you James welcome to the show

James Major (02:21)
Thank you for having me. It’s a pleasure to be here and I’m glad to finally talk to you. I’ve been following you and this is gonna be amazing.

Scott Bursey (02:22)
It’s…

Awesome, awesome. And I think our audience is really going to take something away, James, from your process. Let’s dive in, shall we?

James Major (02:39)
Sounds great, I’m ready.

Scott Bursey (02:40)
Okay,

so first off for people who may not be familiar with your world give us the short version What’s been your main focus these days?

James Major (02:50)
⁓ My main focus of my business is to empty out the house. When somebody has to move into assisted living, if they get a divorce, if they buy a house that’s a different style from their furniture in their current house, if they get a raise and they move to executive living, or if they’re moving in with family, all of these…

you know, they’re downsizing, upsizing, whatever they’re doing, I can step in and take all the stress away from them and handle selling all of their items that they do not want that they leave in the house. So my ⁓ regulations are that nobody is living in the house and everything in the house is for sale. If somebody is living there, it’s a nightmare. It’s just crazy. ⁓

And ⁓ you can’t have a bunch of stuff in there that isn’t for sale, because for some reason, everybody will want to buy that item. So sometimes the larger furniture can stay if we can use it for merchandising. But my goal is to empty out the house. My second main goal is to make the family as much money as possible. Because if they don’t make money, I don’t make money. What differentiates me?

from other state-sale companies is I, okay, if I do not sell an item, like if I do not sell the big bookcase in the library, the bookcase is still the client’s property. Because ⁓ now a lot of these other companies, they have a storefront, they have a website, they have storage units, or they do online auctions and things like that.

So in their contracts, in a lot of situations, what does not sell becomes the estate sale company’s property. So I have seen some companies that will use their estate sales to create inventory for their private businesses.

And so when the houses are full on Sunday,

They don’t really care because all of that’s going to become theirs. And so I’ve, you know, I’ve seen it happen. It’s been a bad practice. I’ve worked for companies that did that. And then I was told, you know, you need to start your own if it upsets you that much. And that’s why I got into this. You know, because, yeah, because when something is not in the system that if you don’t like the way the system’s being run, it’s easier to start your own.

Scott Bursey (06:15)
Awesome, awesome. That’s really good.

James Major (06:28)
instead of change what’s already there.

Scott Bursey (06:31)
Good point and James what markets

James Major (06:33)
Yeah, and so,

⁓ yeah, so some of the customers, want to make a lot of money. They say, I want this for this. I spent this much on this. Those people I will not sign a contract with because I am not going to lie to them just to get the contract. I’m going to be honest with them. And it’s kind of upsetting sometimes, but you have to let them know that

My service is to empty out the house. It’s not to make you rich. So that is a benefit. And some of these companies promise, over promise what they’re going to make and stuff like that. I never tell a number because you never know. There are so many variables in this business. ⁓ They had a racetrack going through the town in Arlington. I didn’t know anything about and it blocked off half the traffic. That was weird. I didn’t expect that.

You know, but things happen, but my customers still come. So, you know,

so my main goal is to empty out the house. My second main goal is to make the family money. And the third main goal is the one you’re gonna like. It’s to make that house visible, not only to the realtors, but also to the neighbors and to people out of state that are moving into the area because…

We are getting a lot of big companies, a lot of executives are moving to the area. And by going to estatesales.net, you can find houses in the area you want to live.

when you go to those estate cells, you see a great sampling of about, of every type of person that lives in about a 10 mile radius. You can meet the people, talk to the people, see how they act.

⁓ Talk to them about the churches, the schools, the taxes, ⁓ the recycling bins. You know, we get all the questions, but it’s a more calm environment to go to an estate sale than to go with a realtor and look at a house. We get the honest vision of what the house is because it still has everything from the previous owner.

in it. A lot of people like that. They like history. They like to know what was this house like. When you walk into a cold, empty house that you have to turn on the lights to see anything, it’s just a shell of a house. It’s not a home. When they come into my estate sales, they are greeted, hopefully by the realtor. We’ll get into that later. But they are greeted by my employees.

they see how much fun the customers are having, they get to look around the house in all the nooks and crannies. And if there’s certain parts of the house that are blocked off, like we had a spiral staircase to a bird’s nest on the fourth floor of a house, it was not open to the public, but if they asked me about it, I showed it to them. And so people will come to these estate sales to scope out the house. If they have family moving into town,

they hit the estate sales because they’re going to find a house before it even goes on the market.

Scott Bursey (09:59)
Very, very good points and what I’m taking away from this is you’re operating under the highest morals that you possibly can and I tip my hat to you on that. What markets are you operating in?

James Major (10:09)
Yes. Yes.

⁓ I do my, you mean, where am I advertising? Or, well, I do my main advertising on estate sales.net, which has recently been purchased by an auction company, which they’re trying to push me into online auctions, but I’m more comfortable doing a sale with a handshake than an email. So I prefer the one-on-one.

Scott Bursey (10:52)
Yes. Yes.

James Major (11:17)
Selling somebody’s belongings that they took their entire life collecting in a house they’ve lived in for 35 years is a more personal thing than something you can express over a computer. So the one-on-one is what makes the difference. Plus, I hire salespeople. I don’t just have monitors sitting in the corner making sure people don’t steal stuff. If we have a customer that approaches a vase,

We will say, are you interested in the vase? Would you like to know something about it? If we do know anything about it. ⁓ And so we find out who they are, who their interest is. We let them know our names. So then they know us, they come to us, they support us, and they know that we’re doing the right thing for the right reasons. And that’s what makes us different. Now, ⁓ by advertising on estatesales.net, ⁓ they typically…

Some of the sales, get maybe a thousand views, two thousand views. I started doing funny photographs. I would put on a hat, a funny hat. would, ⁓ anything with a mirror. I make sure that I’m making a funny face in the mirror in the reflection so they’re still seeing what they can buy, but then they go, wait, there he is. And it’s just kind of like a where’s Waldo kind of moment.

And so it’s, it’s kind of interesting. And I get stopped all the time by people saying, are you the one that makes the funny photos? And I’m like, ⁓ yes, you know, and I’ll put on the wigs, I’ll put on the moomoo’s, you know, but in doing that I’m showing and I’m changing what new people think about estate sales. A lot of people think estate sales are depressing.

Scott Bursey (12:39)
Sure.

Yes.

James Major (13:08)
and boring and gross and weird. And I am letting them know that by the time my team goes in, we clean, organize, research, price, photograph, advertise, advertise, advertise, advertise. By then, the house looks amazing. It’s a complete collection of everything they’ve been collecting over the years. And we turn it into a celebration of that.

family’s ability to make a house a home. And when people come in, especially when the children come in and it’s their parents’ house, it’s the house they grew up in, they come in right before the sale or the night before the sale and they’re able to see how respectful we’ve been in setting up, in staging. And I try to tell them not to look at the prices because everybody has a sentimental value.

of what a vase is. But the retail price of the vase is not nearly that. So somebody’s, sentimental value tends to be a lot more than what it really will sell for. But they understand that. And there are several families I’ve done several estate sales for, and they love the way it’s presented. They love the way it’s a memory. I tell them different ways to handle going through it themselves.

And a lot of people, a lot of families and clients will use me as the hard person to deal with and blame me for putting a timeframe on family. Because timeframe is everything in this business, especially when a realtor is involved. I have two people that called me and contacted me this last week. I’ve been talking to them for months. They said, my house sold in three days. Can I?

I’m supposed to hand over the key in a week and a half.

That’s not enough time for me to stage, advertise, and hold an estate sale. So, but usually I know the realtors and the realtors know me and they say, ⁓ is it James Major of state sales? And they say, yeah. They say, okay, we know exactly how long it takes him. We’ll get in contact with them. And then they changed the date of passing the key because not only do I know how to sell things,

I also have some charities that will come in, take everything remaining after the sale, leave it broom ready, that’s their own term, broom ready, and leave them an itemized list, an inventory of what they take, and a tax write-off sheet. And so right there, you’re saving the client about $1,000 for a clear out and a cleanup.

And then the realtors will typically get their cleaners to come in and then do the photographs of the empty house. But a lot of them use my photos of the house with the furniture in it to make it seem like a real home. Because those people that, a lot of people come with their realtor to my estate sales and they are gonna remember this house that I’m doing this estate sale at because all the other houses were just empty.

and boring, they’re not going to differentiate what those other three houses, but they’re going to remember, the one with the estate sale. Yes, we love that back patio. That would be perfect for our morning coffee. And so we make an impression on the people with the house and we also sell the stuff and make some money. But running an honest

business and letting the client know that I am there for them to not only help them physically sell the stuff and move on and get their house on the market. I am there because I’ve been through a lot in my life. I want to be there on the psychological part of it because they, this can be a traumatic event. Having to say goodbye to everything you grew up with, everything you collected over the years.

Having to say goodbye to that can tear families apart. I’ve seen it, like, I’ve seen siblings just fight, fight, fight over this. I’ve seen people, I’ve seen it bring families together. I’ve seen it just drag out because one person can’t say goodbye. They’ve been trying to like go through mother’s stuff and it’s taken, they’ve spent three months doing that.

They’re paying for the house. They need to get it on the market. They need to get it sold. that person, so sometimes the family will use me by saying, we signed a contract. This is the date. This is when you have to hand over the key to James so that they can set up and hold their sale. So I like to be able to help people in that, but I do understand how hard it can be. And I take special care of those people.

Scott Bursey (19:02)
Absolutely, being compassionate and having a deep empathy is really what separates you along with your high standards. Hey, that is awesome. What caught my attention about you, James, was the way you’ve been able to bridge the gap between a cluttered home and a closing date. That’s not easy, especially in this climate. What’s been the key for your machine to running smoothly?

James Major (19:12)
gas.

⁓ The key is to hire the right people. My team is fantastic. It’s almost magical how much work can be done in a single day. ⁓ The ways that they start is when we get the keys and on day one we go in, we pull everything out of the closets, out of the cabinets, figure out what all is there. We don’t throw anything away yet unless it’s trash and stinky.

but even some of the stinky stuff sells. ⁓ So we collect and then we divide things into like office supplies and office supplies will be throughout the whole house. Then we put that all in one room. Then there’s gonna be, there could be children’s stuff. Then we put all that, we’re gonna be putting all that in one room. We divide up everything into categories and then we figure out which rooms they need to be in.

which rooms have the best lighting for the clothing, which items, you know, and then we get all the jewelry up close to the checkout stand. And my team really, I mean, I thought I was good at this when I started this way back when. It was a hard pill to swallow when I found out that there are people that are better at this than I am. And I had to realize that I just need to let them do it because everybody does a setup differently.

but the results are just phenomenal. They do it differently than I do, but the end result is something I never even dreamed of. And then the clients also respect that. And also the realtors are like, holy shimoli, I cannot believe how good this house looks now. Because we’re going in there and doing a service. We are cleaning, organizing, researching, pricing, staging, staging, staging.

And throughout the estate sale, when we sell a bunch of stuff, of course, on day one, we restage as we go along. We consolidate, we move stuff. Sometimes we will have like mid-century modern room, but then, you know, a lot of stuff we’ll sell and then we’ll put a mid-century modern lamp on an antique table and then put it with an Ikea piece, three things that normally don’t go together, but they might have something in common like color.

size or preference of age that would need it, you know, and do it that way. And we find links between things that nobody else would have put together, you know, just like with the kitchen stuff. Kitchen, everybody has a kitchen color. No matter whose kitchen it is, there is a certain color for their kitchen. They will not buy anything for that kitchen unless it’s their color.

So when we set up the kitchen stuff, we divide it by color. We have the red section, we have the yellow section, we have the, and you know, it makes a huge difference and it simplifies the shopping for the customer.

Scott Bursey (22:37)
Jim Hedgeson.

Certainly. Let me ask you this. What are you most focused on solving next or scaling or what’s your big goal?

James Major (22:50)
What’s my big goal for doing what?

Scott Bursey (22:52)
Yes. What would be your next move in business? Now, do you have any targets, any ambitions as far as progressing the business or what is your strategy that you are going to be employing for your business here? Let’s just say the next six to 12 months.

James Major (23:11)
⁓ In the next six to 12 months, ⁓ I am being pushed into the online auction situation. There are a lot of people that are just downsizing and selling partial households. They are selling a storage unit. They want to get from underneath the payments of the storage units, things like that. Or they have a special item they don’t use anymore. Or they’ve got a bunch of baby stuff and they’re no longer having babies. So they need to get rid of that.

I’m looking at finding a warehouse where I can offer people a place to take their items to. I can have a team there that will organize it like an estate sale. You know, we’ll have the baby stuff from one family. We’ll have office stuff from another family. We’ll have like the bicycle stuff, you know, and run it like an estate sale and do the full price Friday, 25 % off Saturday, 50 % off on Sunday.

and then donate the rest of it so that warehouse will be empty. It won’t be the same sale twice at that location. But being in my position right now, I’m not financially able to sign a lease and have something, demanding price monthly overhead. ⁓ So if anybody has a free warehouse, let me know. We can all make money on it.

But I want to be able to do that because there’s so many people that come to me and need my help, but I’m not able to help them because they don’t have a full estate sale or they’re still living in the house. And so that’s one thing that I want to do. I need to get better at online auctions. also, I definitely want to talk about how the estate sales

Working hand-in-hand with a realtor not only benefits the client who owns the house, it will definitely benefit the realtor. So would you like to know a little bit about that?

Scott Bursey (25:17)
Yes, let’s touch on that and if you can recap that and give us the insight within about two to four minutes, James, that would be just ideal.

James Major (25:26)
Alright.

So I had a friend who’s a realtor. She called me up. She had just gotten her real estate license. She came to me, this was during COVID. She came to me and said, hey, I just got my real estate license. Do you have any ideas for me? I said, why don’t you come and be a greeter at my estate sale? There is not a realtor assigned to this. The family has not put the house on the market.

It is an STBOTM, which is a soon to be on the market house. So my investors know what that means and the family and my regulars know what that means. And she came and she was a greeter and she, at the time we had to check temperature and hand sanitizer and mask and all that. So she had a two minute window with every body that came to my estate sale.

She said, hello, my name is so-and-so. I’m new to real estate. I just got my real estate license. If you have any questions about this house, I can find that out for you in the future. you have any questions about your own house, because the market is so good, I can quickly come up with an appraisal of your house, of what other houses in your neighborhood are selling for. And so we can talk about that.

because a lot of people that come to estate sales are do-it-yourselfers. And so they’ve been remodeling their house and their house is 15 years old and they might’ve outgrown it. They don’t realize how much their house is worth, but because they don’t know a realtor. So she is introducing herself as a new realtor. So she has that in common with that customer because they’re new to asking about realty. So they’re gonna grow together and she can not only

introduce herself as a realtor and represent a house and then, you know, represent the houses she has later on. But she can create a customer, she can create a client out of a customer by letting them know, hey, this is how much your house is worth. I can get you in this other fixer upper that’s larger, that has more room for you and your growing family. And we can make money from the old house. And so she can not only

sell the house we’re in, she can sell that customer’s house and then their lifelong friends. And so that, by her giving out her card, she had 12 appointments that next week. She was new to the business. She went into her office. They could not understand how she had so many appointments with brand new customers that weren’t sure if they wanted to sell or not, but they wanted to learn more.

And about half of those people did want to sell, did want to buy, and ended up helping her start her business with a bang.

Scott Bursey (28:29)
Thank you for that recap and thank you for this conversation, James. This has been very educational. Thank you so much. Well, listen, I appreciate your time, your story, and definitely your perspective. If somebody wants to reach out to you and correspond, what’s the best way for them to contact you,

James Major (28:35)
Yes.

Excellent.

The best way to contact me is just texting me. My phone number is 817-880-4234. Now you can text me. A lot of people text me and say, hey, it’s time, let’s get this on the road. And you can also follow me on estatesales.net. You go to that website and in the search box type in James Major.

because I always put James Major in the title of my sale because with the layout of estatesales.net, it typically has an area that you will get advertisements from, and sometimes I’m outside of their area, but my customers know I’m worth the drive.

Scott Bursey (29:38)
I would say that you definitely are. James, this has been super fantastic. Thank you for being on the show today.

James Major (29:46)
You’ve had Scott Bursey. It’s been a pleasure speaking with you. Anytime you want to talk, just let me know.

Scott Bursey (29:53)
I’ll take you up on that. We need more people in the space doing it the right way. And for those of you tuning in, it…

James Major (29:56)
Alright.

I would love to teach them. Yes, I’m looking for

people. I would love to like teach people in other states. I would love to travel. I would love to do this on TV. So let me know.

Scott Bursey (30:12)
Okay, very good. We’ll definitely keep in touch and for everybody that tuned in today, thanks for joining us. We appreciate each and every one of you. Until the next episode everybody, so long for now.

James Major (30:14)
Alright.