Blog - Kelowna Estate Liquidation

Create a Tea Gift with our Teapot Auction

The fine collection of teapots on our Auction inspires us to think of different ways to gift them to the tea lovers and collectors in your life! The fine quality teapots all inspired by the owner’s love of pianos were put together with love and care over a long period of time, and they can all use good new homes this holiday season!

Why not create a special gift basket for your tea lovers…we’re inspired by this one, from www.hazletons.ca, including fine quality tea related items and a special teapot as the primary basket gift!

This time of the year, specialty cookies, jams, teas, treats, and other small gift items such as specialty napkins, tablecloths or runners are easy to find and fit beautifully in a basket of your choice.

If you’re planning to create a larger gift basket, visit your local dollar store and pick up pre-packaged cellophane gift bags and easy to make bows, and voila, a custom made, beautiful gift to give for the holidays or any special occasion. Another handy tip when planning your gift basket is to add some coloured tissue or basket stuffing around each item to pretty up your new creation.

Bid online on our teapot auction only until Friday, December 10th, on our auction link at: https://kelownaestateliquidation.hibid.com/catalog/335271/vintage-decorative-piano-teapot-collection/

How to Bid on a Hibid Online Auction

Have questions on how to bid on one of our Online Auctions? Here are some helpful tips to follow for you, courtesy of our Hibid.com Online Auction partners.

*NOTE* Once you’re registered to bid – If you are already logged in to the website as a bidder, you will also see this information under your name, called ‘bidding help.’

Internet Bidding Types

Absentee bidding

Absentee bidding is the method of placing bids on auction items prior to the start of the auction. This allows buyers a method to bid on auction items when they are unable to attend the auction. Your bid will be used to place bids for items on your behalf even though you are not there.

Internet-Only Bidding

Internet-only bidding is similar to absentee bidding with the exception that there is no live auction. Your bid will be used to place bids for items on your behalf against other bids.

Webcast Bidding

A webcast auction is a fully interactive, real-time auction where the online bidders are bidding against live, in-person bidders. You will be working with a clerk who will relay the floor bids to the online audience, and the online bids to the auctioneer.

Minimum Bid Types

Public Bid

In public bidding, the current bid(s) are used to determine the minimum bid amount. The minimum bid amount must be met or exceeded when placing a new bid.
For example: If Lot#1 opens bidding at $10, and Bidder A bids $100, the system will then update the minimum bid to be $15. If Bidder B comes along and bids $15, the system will automatically put Bidder A back in at $20 and raise the minimum bid to $25.
The actual minimum bids will be dependent on the auctioneer’s bid increment schedule.

Sealed Bid

In silent bidding, existing bids are NOT used to determine the minimum next bid. Existing bids have no effect on the minimum allowable bid when placing a new bid.

Bid Amount Types

Maximum Bidding

In maximum bidding, the bid amount you place represents the maximum amount that you are willing to pay for this item. Your maximum bid will be used to bid on your behalf until you win the lot or until bidding has exceeded your maximum bid amount.

Fixed / Flat Bidding

In fixed / flat bidding, the bid amount you place represents the actual amount that you are willing to pay for this item (not the maximum). Your fixed bid amount will be used to bid on your behalf.

Times The Money

Times the money bidding allows you to bid per piece when a lot has a quantity greater than one. For example: if you are bidding on folding chairs, and there are 10 folding chairs, you can place your bid for $5 times the money, meaning your total bid is for $50 ($5 x qty of 10). When a lot has times the money bidding enabled it will clearly be labeled and you can choose to place your bid times the money or you can bid a total amount for the whole lot.

Soft Close

A “Soft Close” ending for a lot means that if a bid is placed in the last few minutes, the bidding for that lot will be extended by another few minutes. This gives other interested bidders time to raise their bid before the lot closes. The Soft Close option is typically used for Internet-Only auctions.

A “Linked Soft Close” ending for a lot is just like a regular soft close except that multiple lots are linked together so that if one lot has its bidding extended, all the other lots that are linked will also have their bidding extended.

Reserves

A reserve is a minimum price that a lot must achieve to sell. Some lots may display the status of their reserve: Reserve Met or Reserve Not Met. The absence of this message does not necessarily indicate that a lot does not have a reserve. The option to display reserve status is decided by the auctioneer.

Miscellaneous

What if I’m not registered with Auction Flex?

You must register with Auction Flex to leave Internet Bids.

What if I’m not registered for the auction?

Most auctioneers require you to register for the auction. If you have not registered for the auction at the time you’re placing a bid, Auction Flex will walk you through the registration process automatically. You must register for each auction to be able to bid.

Do I need to be approved to bid?

Yes. The Auctioneer can approve or reject your signup for their auctions at their discretion. Being rejected from bidding on one auction does not necessarily mean that you will be rejected from signing up for other auctions.

The time it takes to approve you for an auction depends on the auctioneer. Some auctions are setup to automatically approve bidders, eliminating the need for you to wait.

What happens when I submit a bid for an auction that I’m not already approved for?

If the auction is using sealed bidding, then your bid is held in pending status until the auctioneer reviews the bid and either accepts it or rejects it. The auctioneer might contact you to arrange for a deposit, get payment information, or just verify your information.

If the auction is using public bidding, then a request will be sent to the auctioneer to approve you for that auction. Your bid has NOT been saved. Once you are approved you will then need to go back to the website and place your bid.

To review the status of your current bids go to the Current Bids link from buyer account maintenance.

How do I check on my bids?

Your bids can be viewed by logging into your account and clicking on the bids link next to the appropriate auction.

Where can I register to bid on Kelowna Estate Liquidations Online Auctions?

Bidding Help

From the Country to the City Downsizing Project

FROM THE COUNTRY TO THE CITY, DOWNSIZING SUCCESSFULLY

Our client describes his experience with having to move from a 5000 sq. ft. home in the country, to a designing and decorating project of his new 1200 square foot home in the city as a ‘potential disaster, and he was pleasantly surprised to discover both projects were completed stress-free, and seamlessly. Making this type of a transition, especially for seniors, is a frightening process for some.

In this Review, he described his experience with our team:

‘Delores, Renee and their team came through for me despite tight timelines, and a large scope of work in two locations. On one hand, they had to clean out a 5000 square foot house and garage. At the same time, they helped me to move and furnish a new place. It could have been a recipe for disaster but all went well thanks to their efforts, professionalism, practicality, positive attitude and good humour. I would not hesitate to recommend them. Himal Mathew’

Once the larger family home was emptied of personal belongings and cleaned, fluffed, and organized to be sale-ready, there was still a little something missing, to be appealing online. This property needed a full Staging to bring it to the next level, and appeal to a buyer who didn’t want any heavy renovations or changes. We arranged for the final staging to prepare the property to look it’s best from the first view online.

The transition to smaller living could have been a daunting task. After moving to the city to be close to amenities, and family, we helped with the full transition. Working with treasured artwork, and furnishings we chose items that fit nicely in the new space. and purchased new foundation pieces that worked with the design. Downsizing can be a smoother, simpler process with assistance from our team!

4 Ways to Clear the Clutter for a Faster Home Sale

Have you been dreading preparing your property for sale? You’re not alone! Our customers call us to have their property cleared of clutter, or, completely emptied in a short time, as in the case of an estate. And we don’t mean just dumping it all in a bin as in the local DUMP IT Service, or, donating the entire contents to charity – if there are items of value, we assess what’s there to sell, then, disperse items to family, donation, and finally, removal.

Do you take on this work yourself, or, hire a company to do it for you? How can you accomplish this monumental task on your own?

How do you choose the best method to downsize your property?

ESTATE SALES
There are companies that manage estate sales directly from the property over a period of days with an estate sale open house. The potential disadvantage of this type of estate clearing is the intrusion of strangers walking through the property, and the time and preparation needed to set up an auction. Estate sales can often bring out dealers, and curiosity seekers, rather than real buyers. The estate sale representative handles all the transactions. and often takes a generous percentage of proceeds, once the sales period ends, and they will not remove extra items that didn’t sell.

ESTATE AUCTIONS

Auction houses will only take items for clearout if they expect them to be easily saleable, meaning they are in tip top condition and have some real value. The days of selling off an entire home’s contents with a traditional auction are coming to an end, being replaced by more practical online auctions, with buyers bidding at their convenience over a period of days online. It is always surprising to realize that auction houses prefer to take so little out of a property to add to a sale.

THE ONLINE MARKETPLACE

Can you sell your items on Facebook? Sure, one at a time, though.

You might be disappointed by the process of selling off your extra furnishings, collectibles, and household goods yourself on sales sites or Facebook Marketplace. Time consuming. and again, strangers will be coming to your door, and contacting you all hours of the day and night. Haggling and negotiating can be expected, and you may not sell the items quickly. Buy and sell Groups on Facebook have a lot of traffic, yet we often hear that people don’t actually show up at the appointed time to purchase their items. This type of sale is fine if you don’t have a great deal to get rid of, and plenty of time to set up all those visits from potential buyers.

Estate Cleanout and Liquidation, Kelowna BC

DOWNSIZING, ESTATE CLEANOUT, CLEAROUT AND LIQUIDATION

Kelowna Estate Liquidations provides a full-service cleanout of all items you want to unload, sseparates the saleable items and what is best for donation, sets up an online auction, handles all the auction advertising, and is present for the pickup date.

Once the downsizing process is complete, our team can complete empty a property, and prepare it for a faster sale. Our customers rely on us to manage the entire process, or any part of it, within a specific time frame and on-budget.

We can arrange for appraisers of fine collectibles and antiques, and will work with homeowners, family members, an executor, realtor, or lawyer as needed. We are bonded and insured, and professional downsizing and estate liquidation experts with a great record of projects, contact us for a quote today.

OVERWHELMED TO SOLD: A Senior Downsizing Journey

When a home has been lived in for decades, and it comes time for downsizing or moving to a retirement residence, many families are overwhelmed with the massive scale of work required, of completely emptying a home and getting it ready for the market. Moving and downsizing can cause a great strain on siblings, who have jobs and time-consuming lives of their own, to help Mom and Dad move forward. Senior Downsizing Services can genuinely help families to tackle this arduous job.

How does our team at Kelowna Estate Liquidation assist this family? During an initial consultation, we describe the full range of services available for organizing, decluttering, packing, helping manage the full move, selling items of value at auction, separating items for donation and giving to family, and we then provide an estimate.

Senior Downsizing:

Once our customers hear of all the available services, it is time to choose which we can assist with. In this move management project, we not only helped with all of the above, but we were also able to see this client all the way through the process, and transition to a retirement residence, having all of her treasured and needed items in place when she arrived to start enjoying the new space immediately.

This is truly a full senior transition, and we’re happy to share the process with you. Here is what the family shared with us after this project:

Judy Sutherland Review:

‘We cannot recommend Delores and her team highly enough! As executors of our aunt’s estate, we were tasked with moving our cousin, now bereaved of her mother, into appropriate housing, clearing the family home & preparing it for sale. Watching Delores interact with our cousin with kindness & gentleness convinced us that she was the perfect match! The sorting, packing & resettlement was a challenge but it was carried out with skill and tender loving care. Delores’s team worked tirelessly to prepare the house for market – cleaning, painting, re-flooring and staging. The house looked amazing! Offers were received in less than a week! Thank you, Delores, for your professionalism and attention to detail. You took a personal interest and were wonderful to work with!’

What needed to be done?

Over the years, our elderly customer had accumulated quite a collection of antique dolls and accessories, and they had grown from one room, to the next, to the next, along with extra seasonal belongings stored in spare rooms. To meet the demands of the impending winter market, the executors reached out to look at what we could do to take this space from overwhelmed to sale-ready in a short time.

An overwhelming collection of items needing to be dispersed before the sale of the property.

All three floors of this property required sorting, and separation of items for donation, dispersal to family members, disposal, and items that were ready for sale. From the basement, to every cabinet, cupboard, bedroom, and space, we organized and decluttered to prepare for the next step.

We worked with our client one on one, to decide which of the furnishings, artwork, and collectibles were to be taken to the retirement residence, for us to set up and have it ready to move in quickly when the time was right. Saleable items were organized and separated for delivery to a local auction hall.

Clearing a property for the new Renovations

As is often the case, a home that has been occupied for several decades will need basic décor and design updates to help with the appeal to new buyers. We leave a property completely empty, and available for any work that must be completed before the sale or rental of a home.

Once we had decided which items were to be taken to the new retirement residence with the family, our team packed up and managed the move to the new space, setting up our client for a move in, quickly. Everything was set in place, from furnishings, to artwork, collectibles, and the bed made, living room ready, and bathroom, and kitchenette ready to live in right away.

Ask us about our full services, available through Kelowna Estate Liquidations. Serving Kelowna BC & Surrounding Areas.

Request a quote or meeting, 250 575 6783. Read more about our services: https://kelownaestateliquidation.ca/downsizing-and-move-management-2/

THERE ARE NO EASY STEPS

Saying Goodbye to A Lifetime of Memories

Sadly, the most common reason to liquidate a home is the passing of a loved one. There are no words to describe the pain of loss, or the overwhelming stress caused by dealing with the final affairs. The responsibility of getting a home ready for sale is a huge undertaking. Tough decisions have to be made. Saying that it’s difficult to be practical about a loved one’s possessions, especially if it’s a family home, is an understatement. Each, room and the “stuff” in it, carries emotional attachments. Most turn to professionals, experts in estate liquidation, to navigate the entire process, but there are those do it yourself-ers that choose to tackle the project themselves. If you’re one of them there are a few things to consider to help get you started.