Estate Sale Inventory Checklist
The walkthrough, the capture order, the inventory template, pricing and staging, the sale day, and the settlement — one working document. Fill it in and save it as a PDF.
Estate and probate rules vary by state, and some items — firearms, certain collectibles, and anything tied to the estate’s legal settlement — carry their own local requirements. This checklist is general trade guidance, not legal advice: the executor and the estate’s attorney decide what may be sold and how the proceeds are handled.
1. Pre-sale walkthrough checklist
Before a single item moves, walk the house once with the family and lock down access, safety, and what is off the table.
- Secure and verify access: keys or lockbox code, the alarm code, and a working way in and out. Confirm the power, water, heat or air, and every light works — you cannot photograph or run a sale in a dark, cold house.
- Photograph every room before you touch anything. This is the before-state record: the house exactly as the family left it, time-stamped, room by room.
- Flag the high-value pull-asides for research or appraisal — jewelry, coins and currency, firearms (note and follow local law), art, and paperwork or documents. Pull them aside and lock them up before the crowd arrives.
- Note the hazards and the no-sell rooms: structural issues, pests, biohazards, and any room the family has excluded. Mark them so no one on the crew stages or sells out of them by mistake.
- Agree the family’s keep-list in writing before you start — what stays, what is already promised to a relative, and what is not yours to sell. Both sides sign it, so a missing heirloom is never a your-word-against-theirs argument.
2. Room-by-room capture order
Work top to bottom and clean-to-dirty, so grime and heavy lifting land at the end and never track back through rooms you have already photographed and staged.
- Attic and top-floor storageDust settles downward. Clear the highest, dirtiest storage first so you are not carrying grime back through finished rooms later.
- Bedrooms and closetsSmall, high-value, and quick to catalog while you are fresh — jewelry, watches, handbags, and linens hide here.
- Living and dining areasThe anchor pieces — furniture, art, and display cabinets — set the tone and the top prices the rest of the sale hangs off.
- Kitchen and pantryHigh item count, low value each. Batch it: photograph sets and lots together rather than logging every spoon.
- Basement, garage, and shedHeaviest, dirtiest, and most tools and bulk — leave the mess and the muscle for last, once everything upstairs is done.
3. The inventory template
- A Excellent
- Like new — no visible wear, complete, and works perfectly.
- B Good
- Light, honest wear; fully functional. The everyday-antique standard.
- C Fair
- Visible wear, a chip, or a working flaw — priced to move.
- D Poor / parts
- Damaged, incomplete, or sold as salvage, scrap, or a project.
| Room | Item description | Qty | Condition | Research flag | List price | Sold price | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Living room | Mid-century walnut credenza | 1 | B | Yes — check the maker’s mark | $220 | $185 | Buyer negotiated on day two |
| Living room | Pair of brass table lamps | 2 | B | — | $45 | $45 | Sold as a pair, rewired |
| Bedroom | 14k gold band ring | 1 | A | Yes — weigh and appraise | $180 | unsold | Held back for appraisal |
| Bedroom | Costume jewelry lot | 1 | C | — | $30 | $22 | Boxed lot, priced to clear |
| Kitchen | Cast-iron skillet | 1 | B | — | $25 | $25 | Seasoned, no cracks |
| Garage | Cordless drill with charger | 1 | B | — | $40 | $32 | Tested — runs and charges |
| Garage | Assorted hand tools | 1 | C | — | $35 | $30 | Bin lot, sold whole |
Example rows with illustrative prices — replace them with your own.
4. Pricing and staging day checklist
The day between cataloging and opening — price it, tag it, stage it, and shoot the after-photos.
- Price the research-flagged items first. The appraisals and maker’s-mark pieces set the ceiling; everything else prices around them, not the other way around.
- Put a sticker or a tag on everything. Nothing hits the floor unpriced — an unpriced item is a negotiation you have already lost.
- Stage like with like: lamps with lamps, linens with linens, tools on the bench. Shoppers buy what they can find and compare, so group the categories and face them out.
- Photograph the staged rooms. This is the after-state record — proof of how the sale was set and priced, and the bookend to the before-photos you shot on the walkthrough.
5. Sale-day checklist
Doors open. Keep the money honest, the floor moving, and the record clean.
- Set the floats and payment before the first knock: starting cash counted by denomination, your own card reader or app tested, and a written note of what you accept.
- Post your markdown schedule where shoppers can see it. Many companies run day-two discounts to clear the floor — decide your own approach in advance and put it in writing so the crew answers every "will it come down?" the same way.
- Mark every item sold as it leaves — the moment it is paid for, not at the end of the day. Mark-sold discipline is the only reason the settlement foots when the sale is over.
- Run door counts and security: a greeter at the entry, eyes on the high-value table, one way in and one way out, and the pull-asides locked until they are paid for.
6. Post-sale settlement fields
The sale is the easy part. The accounting is what the family remembers — and what earns the next referral.
- Gross sales — every item that sold, summed. This is the number the whole statement is built on, so it has to match your marked-sold list to the dollar.
- Commission — your percentage per the signed contract, applied to the gross. State the rate on the statement; never leave the family to work backward from a lump sum.
- Fees and expenses — cleanout, advertising, credit-card, hauling, and disposal, itemized line by line. A bundled "fees" total reads like a hidden charge; an itemized one reads like a receipt.
- Net to the client — gross minus commission minus fees, computed, not guessed. This is the figure the family cares about, and it should foot cleanly from the lines above it.
- Unsold disposition — what happens to what did not sell: donate, haul, or return, agreed with the family and backed by donation receipts where they apply.
- The settlement statement the family signs — every line, down to the net, on one document. It is the closing artifact of the job, and the thing they hand the next family who asks who to call.