Three different values for one object
The confusion between an appraisal and an estate sale price comes from a single word, value, doing three jobs. An object can have a replacement value, a fair market value, and what might be called a liquidation value, and for the same piece those figures can be a long way apart.
Replacement value is what it would cost to buy the same thing again, at retail, from a dealer, today. It is the figure insurance companies want, and it is the highest of the three. Fair market value is what a willing buyer would pay a willing seller when neither is under pressure and both know the facts. It is the figure used for estate tax, for dividing property, and for charitable donations, and it is usually well below replacement. Liquidation value is what the object brings when it has to sell in a fixed window, in a fixed place, to whoever turns up. That is what an estate sale produces, and it is the lowest of the three.
An appraisal is a written opinion of one of those values, for a stated purpose, by someone qualified to give it. An estate sale price is a tag chosen to sell the piece on a weekend. Each is the right number for its own question, and most of the trouble families have with the two comes from using one to answer the other.
What an appraisal actually is
A formal appraisal is a document. It identifies the object in detail, states the kind of value being given and the purpose it is for, explains how the appraiser arrived at the figure, and is signed by someone who can say what qualifies them to give it. The appraiser charges for their time, by the hour or as a flat fee per item, and the report is yours to use for the purpose it names.
The purpose matters more than people expect. An appraisal written for insurance gives replacement value and will read high. The same appraiser, asked to value the same piece for an estate, will give fair market value and the number will be lower, sometimes by half. Neither is inflated or deflated; they are answers to different questions, and an appraisal used for the wrong purpose is not just unhelpful but can cause real problems, for example if an insurance figure is used to divide an estate between heirs.
A verbal opinion is a different thing again. A dealer glancing at a piece and saying what they would pay, an auction house looking at photographs and suggesting an estimate, or an appraiser giving a quick figure at a valuation day: all useful, none of them an appraisal, and none of them something you can attach to a tax return or a probate inventory. Our guide to finding out if something is valuable covers the research you can do yourself before you decide whether a formal opinion is needed.
How estate sale pricing works
An estate sale company is trying to sell nearly everything in a house in two or three days to the people who walk through the door. Its buyers are dealers who need a margin, collectors who know exactly what things sell for elsewhere, and neighbors furnishing a house. The company prices each item at what it believes one of those people will pay on the day, and on the last day it discounts whatever is left, because an unsold item is worth nothing to anyone.
That produces prices below fair market value on purpose. A piece that would fetch a good sum from the one collector in the country who wants it, given a month to find them, will not fetch it from whoever happens to be in the living room on Saturday. The estate sale company knows this and prices accordingly, and the commission, commonly somewhere between roughly a third and a half of gross sales and varying by region and by estate, comes out after that. Our guide to estate sale commission explains the arithmetic.
A good company does research the contents. It looks up marks, checks sold prices, and knows its local market well enough to price a piece of furniture to the dollar. It will also usually recognize when something is worth more than a house sale can bring and suggest sending it to auction or a specialist instead. What it does not do is produce a written, signed, purpose-stated opinion of value, and it is not supposed to. Pricing to sell and appraising to document are different skills with different aims.
Why the tag is lower than the appraisal
An appraisal describes what a piece is worth in a market with time and the right buyer. An estate sale tag describes what it will bring this weekend from whoever comes. The gap between them is the cost of speed, and for most household contents that cost is worth paying, because the alternative is months of selling things one at a time.
The three values side by side
The table below shows how the same object reads under each kind of value. The figures are illustrative; real numbers depend on condition, maker and local demand, and no appraiser or company can tell you in advance where a piece will land.
| Kind of value | Answers the question | Who wants it | Where it sits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Replacement (insurance) | What would it cost to buy this again at retail? | Insurers; anyone scheduling a piece on a policy | Highest |
| Fair market | What would a willing buyer pay a willing seller, neither in a hurry? | Estate and tax purposes, dividing property, donations, some disputes | Middle |
| Liquidation (estate sale) | What will it bring in this house, this weekend, from these buyers? | Anyone who needs the house empty on a date | Lowest |
One thing the table hides: the ranking can flip for particular objects. A piece with a national collector market, sold through the right auction, can bring close to its fair market value or above it, while a large piece of ordinary furniture that is expensive to move can bring far less than any appraisal suggests, in any venue. The guide to estate sales versus auctions is about choosing the venue where a given piece does best.
When an appraisal is worth the fee
You do not need a written appraisal to hold an estate sale, and most families never get one. There are, though, a handful of situations in which the fee buys something you actually need:
- The estate has to report values. Probate inventories and estate tax filings can require a supportable value for personal property, and an executor who guesses can be challenged later. Rules vary by state and this is not legal or tax advice; ask the estate's attorney what the court or the filing needs.
- Heirs are dividing property in kind. If one sibling takes the paintings and another the silver, a neutral fair market value for each is what makes the split defensible. Our guide to dividing personal property among siblings covers how families use it.
- A piece is being donated for a deduction. Above certain thresholds a qualified appraisal may be required to claim the deduction at all. A tax professional can tell you where the line sits.
- Something may be genuinely significant. If your own research suggests a piece could be worth thousands, a written opinion before it is sold is cheap insurance against tagging it at fifty dollars, and it tells you which venue it belongs in.
- A piece is being kept and insured. An insurer will want a replacement value in writing to schedule it.
- There is a dispute. A signed opinion from a disinterested professional ends arguments that phone searches do not.
Notice what is not on the list: the ordinary contents of an ordinary house. Appraising a living room of good but unremarkable furniture will cost more in fees than the appraisal would ever change, and the estate sale company will research and price those pieces as part of its job.
How to hire an appraiser
Appraising is not licensed in most places for personal property, so the title means only what the person behind it can show. Ask about training and membership of a professional appraisal organization, ask what kinds of object they appraise regularly (a specialist in furniture is not the person for coins), and ask to see a sample report with the client's details removed.
Then settle the arrangement before any work starts:
- State the purpose. Insurance, estate, donation, division. The appraiser needs it to choose the right kind of value, and the report should say it.
- Agree the fee as time or a flat sum. Never a percentage of the value found. A percentage fee rewards a high number, and a high number may not be a true one.
- Confirm they will not offer to buy. An appraiser who also deals in what they appraise has an interest in a low figure. Reputable appraisers keep the two apart, and will say so if asked.
- Agree what is being appraised. A whole-house walk-through with a summary and detailed entries for the significant pieces costs far less than an itemized report on every object, and is usually what an estate needs.
Free appraisals with a purchase offer attached
An offer to appraise the contents at no charge, followed by an offer to buy them, is not an appraisal. It is a purchase negotiation in which the buyer has also supplied the price. Get the opinion from someone with no stake in the sale, or at least get a second one before you agree to anything. Our guide to warning signs covers this and its relatives.
Using an appraisal alongside an estate sale company
If you have an appraisal, whether one you commissioned or one found in the house from years ago, it is useful to the estate sale company, with two provisos. First, tell them what kind of value it gives and when it was written. A twenty-year-old insurance appraisal of a dining set is a record that the set was good, not a price anybody will pay for it now. Second, do not expect the tag to match the figure, for all the reasons above, and do not choose a company because it promised it would.
What an appraisal can do is change the plan for specific pieces. A company that sees a written fair market value in the thousands for a painting will usually agree that it belongs at auction rather than on a wall in the sale, and the contract can say so: which pieces are excluded, who is sending them where, and whether the company's commission applies to them. It can also support a reserve or a minimum on a particular item, if the company offers that; the contract checklist shows where those terms go. And it gives you a record for the estate of what was sold and for roughly what it was worth, which an executor may need long after the sale is over.
What an appraisal cannot do is make the buyers who come to a house sale pay fair market value. If a family wants that figure for a piece, the honest options are to send the piece to the venue where its buyers are, to keep it, or to accept the estate sale price and the speed that comes with it. The company is not underpricing the piece; it is pricing it for the room it is in.
What to do next
Work out which question you are actually asking. If it is what the estate must report, or how to divide things fairly, get a written appraisal for the pieces that matter and ask the estate's attorney what the filing needs. If it is simply whether anything in the house is worth more than a house sale will bring, do the research in our guide to finding out if something is valuable first, and read about overlooked treasures so nothing significant gets tagged as ordinary.
Then hear from the people who price houses for a living. Describe the estate once and local estate sale companies will reach out to you, free. Ask each one how they research and price, what they do with a piece that belongs at auction, and how their commission applies to it. The answers tell you a great deal about the company, and the guide to choosing an estate sale company covers the rest.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need an appraisal before an estate sale?
Usually not. The estate sale company researches and prices the contents as part of its job, and an appraisal of ordinary household goods would cost more than it could change. An appraisal is worth getting when the estate has to report values, when heirs are dividing property, when a piece is being donated or insured, or when your own research suggests a piece could be significant.
Why is the estate sale price so much lower than the appraised value?
Because they measure different things. An appraisal for insurance gives the cost of replacing the piece at retail, and one for an estate gives what a patient buyer would pay. An estate sale price is what the piece will bring in the house, this weekend, from whoever comes, and that is lower by design. The gap is the price of selling everything quickly.
Can an estate sale company give me an appraisal?
Most estate sale companies price rather than appraise, and their opinion of what a piece will sell for is not a formal appraisal you can use for probate, tax or insurance. Some companies employ or work alongside a qualified appraiser and can arrange a written report for a fee. If you need a document, ask for exactly that, and check who will sign it and what qualifies them.
How much does a personal property appraisal cost?
Appraisers charge by the hour or a flat fee per item or per visit, and the figure varies by region and by the kind of property. A walk-through of a house with a summary report costs much less than an itemized report on every object. Avoid anyone who charges a percentage of the value they find.
Is an old appraisal still valid?
An old appraisal is a record of what a piece was and what it was worth for a stated purpose on that date, and markets move. Furniture and china in particular often bring far less now than appraisals from twenty years ago suggest. It is still useful to show the estate sale company or an auction house, but treat the figure as history, not a price.