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Next Sales: August 2010; September 2010
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Thank God for Anne Dee Estate Sales. With the death of my mother & last parent there were many things happening at the same time & most of them were new to me. I began to research what we were going to do with moms property & possessions & went through many interviews of auctioneers, estate sales persons, appraisers & others to figure out how we should proceed. A couple of appraisers advised me to talk with Anne Dee, so I phoned her directly. From the first call things were different. She volunteered to come over & help me understand some of the values of [items] so we could make family decisions about what to sell. Everyone else wanted to charge for an opinion on the matter. Anne advised us in many ways & became part of our family. We entrusted silverware & jewelry to her for weighing, inventory, research & photography. We trusted her from the first meeting & her knowledge, enthusiasm & research impressed us more with each day we worked with her. Anne invited us to one of her sales & we could see how she ran it, professionally, well organized & secure from general theft. We signed with her & she delivered on every expectation we had, including leaving the house broom clean. She did better than that & dry-cleaned the carpet. When she left, the house never looked so good. We sold everything offered, got more than a fair value from it & were impressed with every aspect of her work. I highly endorse Anne Dee Estate Sales. We had a large estate in the very well established neighborhood of Old Enfield & it was so professionally handled that even the neighborhood [association] thanked us. Anne made it a family affair & we met the relatives of principals of the business & their partners, all of whom involved their spouses. Thanks to that team for an outstanding job. Chad Aicklen, executor Austin, TX January 5, 2010 Laura, your estate sale is in really good hands with Anne Dee. She did a fabulous job for my client with a home in North Allandale last year. The house was packed to the ceiling with 40 years of collections & the family didnt know what treasures they had. Anne knows & she will do a really classy job on the sale. Margaret Denena, realtor, Prudential Texas Realty Austin, TX December 10, 2009 Dear Anne & staff: Thank you so much for the wonderful job that you did on our Dad's estate sale! The sale was well advertised, very organized, well attended & was a huge success! Clearing out our Dad's house was a little overwhelming for us & you came in & knew exactly what to do to get this task accomplished. Even though the primary goal of this sale was about getting the house emptied out & on the market & not about making money, the proceeds that we received from you were way more than they would have been if we had conducted a sale on our own. What a huge relief to see the empty, clean house after the sale, exactly as you promised! We were able to put it on the market immediately. We appreciate the excellent work & would highly recommend you. Thank you! The family of John B. Robertson Austin, TX December 3, 2009 Thanks for all your help & advice. I appreciate it & enjoyed working with you. I have recommended you to two possibly good estate sales. Pat K. Austin, TX November 24, 2009 Anne, I would like to thank all of you for your professionalism & courteous manner in dealing with my mother's estate.... The staff followed through with everything that I was told would happen. The house looks good after the sale. You have made everything much easier for me. I will recommend you whenever I hear of the need of your services. Thank you all, Phillip Hayter Pflugerville, TX October 18, 2009 Dear Anne: I wanted to write & thank you for all your help with Ila's estate sale. It's taken me awhile to write because grieving the death of a loved one comes in stages for me. The house is almost empty, the yard sale is scheduled for next weekend, we have a contract with a potential buyer for the house &, somehow, with each step I take forward, it seems more & more real that Ila is dead. So it is with writing this letter. I am possibly an unlikely candidate for an executor since I am inexperienced in probate & estate business but, as the end of life approaches, I suppose it comes down to trusting someone with the stuff that is left & the things that must be done after we're gone. It's an honor to be trusted that much; it's also a helluva lot of work. Since Ila trusted me, I needed to find someone I trusted to help me. I know very little about antiques.... the responsibility of selling Ila's personal property was scary. At first I thought I would hire an antique dealer from the area to help me with pricing & then handle the sale myself. As I spoke with friends & neighbors, your name came up. One neighbor attends estate sales every weekend & she said yours are always well-organized, well-attended & fairly priced. Those things are all true. And more. Your website is the best I've seen. It is obviously maintained frequently & lovingly & your tips were especially valuable to me. You're fair. You were prompt for appointments & followed through with everything we discussed. Just before you drove away from the house with a truck & trailer full of furniture & household items, you took a minute to write the address of the location where the stuff would be stored. It never occurred to me that some unscrupulous person might just bring me a document to sign & then drive off with the stuff & never be heard from again. It made me even more confident that I chose the right person for this job. You're flexible. I knew that the location of Ila's house would not work for an in-house sale & you were willing to work with me to move the more valuable items to include with an upcoming sale in Austin. That meant that I would not have the usual advantage of having the house empty & clean at the end of the sale, but it seemed like a fair trade to me. You know your antiques. Since I am inexperienced but interested in learning, I wanted to be there when you explored the house for your initial survey, when you came back to move the stuff to Austin & then on the days of the sale. It was fun to watch you discover valuable items & light up with enthusiasm as you recognized names of artists & manufacturers. A couple of days prior to the sale, I saw a glimpse of the huge amount of work & expertise that goes into setup. At the sale, I was impressed with your presentation. So many items had been sadly neglected for decades & you cleaned & polished them & made them attractive again. The sale itself was very well-organized in terms of grouping like items together & in displaying them so that all were visible & clearly priced. Your preferred customer list is one of your strongest assets. You have spent years cultivating these relationships & you can match a sale item with a potential customer after just a glance. The fact that they keep returning says it all. Your pricing was obviously fair since there weren't more than a dozen things left at the end of the sale. I was pleasantly surprised when the checks were well above your initial estimate. And the globe was the biggest & best surprise of all. When I saw it in the attic, I knew it was old but, as you said repeatedly, condition is everything & its condition was in need of lots of TLC. When it didn't sell in Austin with a price tag of $500 I figured it was just overpriced, but you suggested trying to sell it on eBay since the market for globe collectors is more international than local. What a shock when it sold for $2,225! Your experience, persistence & willingness to try alternative venues paid off for both of us. Finally, an estate is more than an estate. It's what's left of someone's life after they've either downsized or departed this life. An estate sale requires more than a strong back & a splash of furniture polish (although those are also necessary). If it is to be done properly, it requires a sense of history, laborious research into the background of many items, a respect for the fact that someone spent their life treasuring these items (sometimes for generations) & a determination to relocate them to someone else who will treasure them. Our lives are made of stories, lived & told one at a time, & our stuff contains those stories. You get that. You handled her treasures properly. Ila would be proud! Thank you, Anne & the rest of your staff. With deepest gratitude, J. Edwards, executor Smithville, TX October 12, 2009 To Anne Dee & working crew. THANKS SO MUCH for a big job very well done. You all made a huge step [up] in my Senior Life... I want you to know how much I appreciated all of your efforts & work with the display of my house contents... Everything was arranged great & organized... clean... made ready for the new owners. I shall never forget your kindness. Thank you. Sylvia D. Sanders Austin, TX October 8, 2009 I went to your Crossmeadow sale & was absolutely pleased. All marked prices [were] both fair & reasonable for the buyer & the seller. I then went to another estate sale on Saturday, about 5pm. Prices were marked up ridiculously high & I felt sorry for the family that hired this lady to do the sale. I was annoyed because I am very frugal, but hate to haggle. I felt pressured & uncomfortable to have to do so to get a decent deal. I left empty handed. I left your sale with a near full car. Also, I found you both on Craigslist. Your ad was very attractively written & informative. I went to your website & found the "Six Tips" to be very helpful, as I am new to yard & estate sales. You also explain how you run your show, doing the Friday & Saturday thing. Which by the way... is a great idea... absolutely brilliant. On the other hand, I felt that your competitor falsely advertised in her ad by stating that the sale was from Sat 9am until everything was gone. I thought to myself, "Hmm... slim pickins, but good deals." Yet I overheard her saying to someone that they would be there again on Wednesday. I wasted my time & gas. Anyway, I just wanted to commend you on your skills, good business practices & plain common sense. I think you've spun an intricate web of good karma for your business.... Keep up the good work & kudos to you. I'm new in town, but I will send you business anytime the opportunity presents itself. Thank you for a wonderful experience & I'll be seeing you around. Amanda Hinson Austin, TX October 4, 2009 Wow, I am impressed with your rapid responses.... No wonder everyone speaks so highly of you. Paul S. Austin, TX October 2, 2009 We feel great about doing this with you two. You have a great mix of fairness, expertise, interest in history, willingness to "get dirty" & treasure hunting skills. Chad Aicklen, executor Austin, TX September 19, 2009 Anne & her team conducted a very successful sale for me. She & her team were very professional & knowledgeable. They invested the time to research & market [my] sale & it resulted in a huge turnout. I definitely recommend Anne & her team!!! David Foley San Diego, CA September 15, 2009 Thank you for displaying my "memories" so beautifully. Bonnie N. Menlo Park, CA September 8, 2009 I would not hesitate to recommend Anne Dee for your parents' estate sale. She is honest, very knowledgeable & extremely hard-working. The sale came off well with a great turnout & the house was left clean & ready for the realtor to begin. personal e-mail from past client to prospective client Austin, TX August 1, 2009 Anne, We just wanted to thank you for the excellent job you did with my aunts estate sale. [Lillie Mae] reached the age of 100 & lived in her house for 87 years. The thought of going through all her possessions & sorting, pricing & then holding the sale ourselves was just too overwhelming. You & your team did a wonderful jobvery professional & knowledgeable. The way you left the house after the saleso clean & neatwas amazing. We did not do another thing to it before showing it to potential buyers. We found a buyer within two weeks & are now waiting for it to close. I have already & will continue to recommend your valuable service to others who are facing the enormous job of holding an estate sale. Thank you once again for everything. Pat & Clint Maddox Austin, TX April 18, 2009 Huge compliments to Anne Dee & her team of professionals in managing the sale for our Dads estate, or as we came to call it Dads Last Sale. Dad lived in his home for 30+ years & was an avid collector, buyer & seller of many types of things: antique books, Texana, military items, glassware, Longhorn memorabilia & more. When Dad passed away he left behind many collectibles & treasures. In sorting through things after his passing, we, as his children & heirs, were at a loss as to how to value his possessions & proceed with an estate sale in a professional manner. A colleague put us in touch with Anne. In speaking with Anne, we immediately found her to be extremely knowledgeable about how to proceed & equipped with a plan that would be respectful of our Dads wishes. Anne & her team worked tirelessly for three weeks to prepare the house & the myriad of items for the estate sale. She & her team researched values for collectibles, prepared the items for display throughout the house & brought in her own display cases & tables to conduct a professional sale. Every item in the house was consideredeven old tools were prepared for sale. On the day of the sale, people arrived earlya testament to Annes reputation & business dealings. A steady flow of interested buyers came to the estate sale over the weekend. At the end, almost everything in the house had been sold. Remaining items were donated to Goodwill & the Salvation Army. A few days later, I met with Anne & she provided line-by-line detail of all the items sold & presented me with a check for the proceeds of the estate sale. I remain amazed at, & appreciative of, the work that Anne & her team do. I will always think of Anne fondly as the great woman who orchestrated Dads Last Sale. Nancy McIntire, executor, & the family of Thomas J. Ney Austin, TX February 19, 2009 Anne: Finding your web page was the best thing that could have happened to me & my wife! As a retail professional for more than 35 years, I recognized right away that you knew how to make this happen & the results were everything I could have hoped for. You understand how to price, promote & conduct an estate sale to achieve maximum results. In spite of a difficult homeowners organization, you & your team moved quickly & efficiently to sell off the contents of our Austin home, getting good pricing & leaving us with a nice clean home to deliver to the buyers. Thanks for a difficult job well done! Sam & Mardi Crowley Coppell, TX September 9, 2008 Thanks for the professional yet friendly manner in which you conduct your sales. Today I purchased a number of Texana books & you recognized my dealer status....Thanks again for all the effort you put into conducting these estate sales. Charles Locke Garfield Country Store Del Valle, TX August 31, 2008 Hi Anne: Here is a testimonial to go on your website. We mean every word. When our parents moved into assisted living, we were faced with the question of what to do with all the possessions our family had accumulated over forty years in our family home. Our house was packed to the rafters with furniture, clothes, books, collectibles & memorabilia from our parents sixty years of marriage. To make matters worse, nobody in our family ever liked to throw anything away & we had never had a garage sale! The task of cleaning out the house (& our very messy garage) seemed almost impossible. Anne Dee was a godsend to us. She came in & worked tirelessly for two weeks to set up a living estate sale. Anne & her colleagues carefully researched how much our things were worth & priced them fairly. Anne made sure everything was clean, organized & attractively presented. We appreciated Annes professional & straightforward approach & especially appreciated the kind & respectful way in which she dealt with us & our parents. It made a difficult time so much easier. The estate sale came off beautifully. It was well publicized & well attended & our parents felt good about the results. It was such a relief to know that we had chosen the right person for the job! Anne & her team are fantastic & we will always be grateful for everything they did for us. Mary & Liz Clare Austin, TX July 23, 2008 Hey Anne, I just wanted to tell you how much we appreciated everything that you did for us. The sale went great & it was a pleasure to work with you. [We] are really enjoying the clean house ... it is even better than we expected!! Dr. Shelby Marquardt BlueSkyScrubs.com Austin, TX June 6, 2008 Our experience with Anne Dee was serendipitous! We were at the end of our proverbial rope, having spent eight consecutive weekends traveling from Dallas to Georgetown to sort through the belongings of our dearly cherished friend. We knew we needed to have an estate sale, but had no clear ideas as to how it should be run. Recalling garage sales & yard sales we had conducted in the past, we figured a few signs, a newspaper ad & some price tags was all that we needed. However, the sheer volume of items quickly made it apparent that we were ill-equipped to handle this gargantuan task. Even though we both have experience in sales & merchandising, we didnt even know where to begin to price a tea cup collection from the early part of the century should they be $5 or $50 each? Our discussions led to arguments that ultimately led to frustration & added stress. It was then that we decided to search the internet for an estate sale service in the Austin area. The results of our search were very interesting. First, there are very few true estate sale services with an internet presence. Second, of those listed, a few have only a phone number & a basic description. Third, the standard commission in the industry seemed to be 50%, which seemed rather exorbitant to us. Finally, we found Anne Dee. Her website was so informative & easy to read. Every single question that we had been asking for weeks was clearly answered in her 10 Tips section. When we picked up the phone to call, all we had to do was explain our situation & ask her when she could come see the house. Anne & her colleagues worked tirelessly for two weeks to prepare for the sale. The house was turned upside down shelves for books & glass were brought in, tables were supplied & neatly arranged to create a flow to the traffic through the house & each item was meticulously cared for & priced according to their vast knowledge of the antique markets & experience with what prices items will actually sell for. Anne told us to stay in Dallas until the weekend of the estate sale & not worry about a thing. Her calm, professional demeanor eased our minds & allowed us to sleep at night, knowing we were in good hands. The weekend of the estate sale worked like clockwork. Big, yellow signs with directional arrows were placed all over town. It would have taken much of our time to make signs & put them out & pick them up each day not to mention the cost of making them. Anne manned the checkout station while [her colleagues] expertly answered questions & welcomed people to the sale. They were a well-oiled machine. All items of value were kept within their sights & smaller items such as jewelry were placed in special glass cases. The house had been turned into a showroom! We were amazed at what people bought. Some came for the rare finds while others sifted through books & records & others went straight for the old tools. Nearly everything in the entire house sold that weekend. When the sale was finished, all items of no value were taken to the dump & those with some value were donated to charity. The handful of items that remained after that were taken to another sale that Anne was conducting two weeks later & they all sold. Anne sent us a full inventory & a check for the proceeds within three days of the sale weekend. We were so pleased with the outcome! Even after her fee, we realized more from the sale than we would have if we had conducted it on our own. We offer our heart-felt thanks & gratitude to Anne [& her colleagues] for all they did for us. They are now a proud part of our familys history & we cherished every moment we spent with them. Reflecting back, we should have called Anne after our first trip to Georgetown! David Bauman, executor Dallas, TX & Nancy Gray Garland, TX May 19, 2008 Dear Anne. Thank you for the e-mail regarding the Preview Sale in Berry Creek. It was nice to meet you & I appreciated the way you handled the sale. Everything was clean, organized & priced & I believe most things were priced fairly. You were very cordial to deal with....Thanks again for your kindness & for doing a good job at what you do. That is sometimes rare these days & deserves to be recognized. Good luck in all your endeavors. John Bright Georgetown, TX April 7, 2008 Anne & Team, WOW! What a great job you all did on the estate sale. You were upfront with us about the process that was needed to make this a great sale & you carried it out. I really appreciate how easy it was to work with you & all of your staff. When we contacted you, we were overwhelmed & exhausted & we had only begun going through the memories that were in that home. You & your team came in, pulled out all of the family memories & packed them up for us to go through when we can muster the time & energy that it takes, worked numerous hours to organize & prepare for the estate sale & worked non-stop for four days to help us reach the end goal of sharing the extra memorabilia with others through the sale. You truly showed that you understood the emotional ties that we had to these belongings & helped us to move on as [they] would have wanted us to. As promised, you had the house sparkling when we put it on the market & it sold within twenty-four hours! Again, thanks to you & your team for helping us with this truly emotional time in our lives. Please feel free to use us as a reference for any other possible clients! You all did a fantastic job! Tina Folts, executor Austin, TX August 11, 2007 |
