What to Put in an Estate Sale Contract, Clause by Clause

What a good estate sale contract does

The contract you hand a family at the kitchen table is doing two jobs. The first is to say, in words they can follow without help, what you will do in their parent's house, what it will cost, and what happens to everything that does not sell. The second is to settle in advance the arguments a sale can produce: the executor who turns out not to be the executor, the brother who takes the tools after pricing, the sale that brings in half of what everyone hoped. Do the first well and the family signs; do the second well and you never have to argue about it.

The clauses below appear in most well-run companies' agreements, in roughly the order a family reads them. Contract law, consumer protection rules and the authority needed to sell a deceased person's property all vary by state, and nothing here is legal advice. Draft from this list, then pay an attorney in your state to read it once.

Who is signing, and whether they can

The person who calls you is usually the relative who lives nearest, not necessarily the person with the legal right to sell the contents. The first clause names both parties in full and says in what capacity the client signs: as owner, as executor or administrator, as trustee, or as agent under a power of attorney. Then a short representation that the client has the authority to sell everything the contract covers, and that anyone else whose consent is needed has given it.

Ask for the paper behind that sentence and keep a copy in the sale file: the letters testamentary, the page of the trust that names the trustee, or the power of attorney document. If probate has not been opened, sign subject to it and hold the sale date until the letters arrive. Do not stage a house on the word of a family member who may not be entitled to give it. The guides on holding a sale before probate closes and what a power of attorney allows explain the family's side.

The same clause gives the property address, the staging dates and the sale dates; every later clause about access, cancellation and clean-out hangs off them.

Commission, the minimum and every fee beside it

State the rate as a percentage of gross sales and say whether card fees and sales tax come out before or after it is applied. If you use a sliding scale or a different rate on individual high-value items, set it out as a small table rather than a sentence. Commission commonly falls somewhere between roughly a third and a half of gross, and it varies by region and by estate; the commission guide covers what moves it.

If you carry a minimum, write it in dollars and say how it works: the company receives the agreed percentage or the minimum, whichever is greater. Then list every cost that can be billed separately, each with a fixed figure or the basis for calculating it: set-up labor for a house that needs unusual sorting, advertising beyond your standard package, dumpster fees, security for a sale with high-value items, permits, and any auction-house split on pieces you send out. The fees guide describes what a fair version of each looks like from the family's side.

What the commission buys, and what it does not

Write the scope as two lists, each specific enough that a stranger could check whether it was done.

Then the second list: what is priced separately, and what you do not offer at all. Clean-out of unsold items matters most, so give it its own sentence and say which of three things is true: included, available at a stated price, or not provided. Say what condition the house will be in when you hand back the keys, in plain words such as broom-swept with unsold items left in place. A family with a closing date on the house needs to know this before they sign.

Nothing leaves the house: kept items and family purchases

The clause a new company most often leaves out is the one that later costs it the most. You price a house over four days, and on the fifth a nephew arrives with a truck for the workbench and the good lamps. The contract should say three things about this.

First, the family removes everything they intend to keep before staging begins, and lists anything left in the house that is not for sale on an attached schedule you both initial. Second, after a stated cutoff nothing else leaves without your agreement, and an item removed after it has been priced carries a fee, either your commission on the marked price or a fixed sum. Third, whether family and friends may buy before the doors open, and on what terms. Either answer is defensible if it is written down.

Say the same about yourself. State whether you and your staff may buy from the sale, and if so, when and at what price. Families arrive at this question with suspicion, and fairly, because the company that prices the item is the company buying it. A clause that answers it before it is asked does more for your reputation than any assurance in person; the warning-signs guide tells families what to look for here.

Finally, name what the contract does not cover: vehicles, real estate, firearms, prescription medicines, anything hazardous. Each needs its own arrangement or a plain statement that you will not handle it; the guide on firearms from an estate explains why most companies leave those out.

Pricing authority, discounts and whatever is left

The family is paying you for judgment, so the contract gives you sole authority to set prices, with one exception: a short attached list of items on which the family may set a floor. Letting the family approve prices generally produces a house priced at what somebody paid thirty years ago. The pricing strategy guide covers the reasoning you can share with a family who wants to be involved.

Write your discount schedule in. If the second day is a quarter off and the last afternoon is half off, say so, and say whether the floor on the reserved list holds through the discounts. Say whether you sell to dealers before the public opening, because a family that discovers a pre-sale afterwards will assume the best pieces went to friends cheaply, whether or not that is true.

Then the unsold items. The family chooses, before the sale, from a fixed set of options: they take everything back, you donate on their behalf and provide the receipt, you remove the remainder as a priced clean-out, or you buy the remainder outright at a figure set after the sale. Say who chooses, and by when. The donation guide covers what the family will need from you if they choose that route.

Access, insurance and who is responsible for what

You need the house, and only you, from the first staging day until the keys come back. Write it that way: exclusive access, keys or a lockbox code in your possession, utilities on and paid for by the family throughout, and no one else in the house during staging or sale hours without your agreement. Say whether family members may be present during the sale. Most companies ask them not to be, because shoppers negotiate differently in front of a grieving owner; working with grieving families covers how to say so kindly.

On insurance, be precise and be modest. Name the general liability coverage you carry and offer the certificate; do not describe yourself in terms the certificate does not support. Tell the family, in the contract, to call their own homeowner's insurer before the sale, since a commercial sale in an empty house is something a policy may treat differently. The licensing and insurance guide covers what to carry.

Then say who bears what. Yours: reasonable care of the contents while in your custody, the conduct of your staff, and the accounting. Not yours: loss caused by the family or their guests, conditions in the house you did not create, and damage done by buyers removing their own purchases, which is why many companies state that buyers move their own items and staff do not carry. Liability standards vary by state, and this is exactly the clause your attorney should shape; the liability and safety guide describes where claims actually come from.

Settlement, the accounting and cancellation

Say when the family will be paid, in business days from the last sale day, by what method, and what document comes with it. A good settlement statement lists every item above a threshold you name, groups smaller items by category, and shows the gross, the commission, each separately billed cost and the net on one page. Families compare notes on when they were paid and on whether the statement made sense.

Cancellation deserves its own paragraph, because it happens. Set a fee at each stage that tracks the work already done: nothing, or a small sum, before you have set foot in the house; your documented labor once staging has begun; labor plus advertising once the sale is announced. Say when you may cancel: a house that turns out to be unsafe, contents removed after the cutoff, authority that cannot be documented. Treat weather and a death in the family as postponements, since neither is anyone's fault and a fee for either reads badly.

Close with the clauses your attorney will insist on: which state's law governs, where a dispute would be heard, and whether you both agree to mediation first. Keep them short and in ordinary type.

Writing it so a family will sign it

The best estate sale contracts run two to four pages and read like the company talks: a heading for each clause, short paragraphs, numbers in figures, and the schedules attached at the back where they can be filled in at the table. Then walk through it with the family, clause by clause, at the house. It takes fifteen minutes and it is the best sales conversation you will have. Leave a copy and tell them they are welcome to sleep on it. Remember who is across the table: very often someone reading the first contract they have seen since the funeral home's. They may be checking it against this site's contract checklist, so make sure every item on it has an answer in yours.

What to do next

Draft your agreement from the clauses above, have an attorney in your state read it, and revise it after every dispute. If you do not yet have a steady flow of families to sign it, list your company here free: leads and sale listings are free, with no per-lead charge, no listing fee and no card needed to join. Families who describe their estate once on this site are emailed to the five nearest companies, other local companies can see the request too, and the family can close it whenever they like. The guides on what records to keep and where leads come from are the natural next reads.

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