How Much Do Estate Sale Companies Charge in 2026
If you are asking how much do estate sale companies charge, here is the number that matters: most of them take between 30% and 50% of everything the sale brings in. On a $12,000 estate sale, that is $3,600 to $6,000 gone before a single dollar reaches the family. The commission is the headline cost, but it is rarely the only one. Setup fees, advertising fees, and post-sale cleanout charges get layered on top, and those are the ones that surprise people.
I help people sell large household items for a living, and I have watched hundreds of these situations play out. A parent passes away or moves into assisted living, the family has three weekends to clear a four-bedroom house, and an estate sale company feels like the only option. Sometimes it is. Often it is not, especially when the real value in the home sits in five or six big items rather than in a thousand small ones. So let me break down exactly what these companies charge, what the commission actually pays for, when hiring one is the right call, and when you are better off handling the big pieces separately.
How Much Do Estate Sale Companies Charge? The Short Answer
Most estate sale companies charge a commission of 30% to 50% of gross sales, with 35% to 40% being the most common range in 2026. The commission is calculated on the total the sale brings in, not on your profit, and it comes off the top before you see anything.
The rate you get quoted depends on three things. The first is the total value of the estate: a company will happily drop to 25% or 30% for a home stuffed with antiques and jewelry, because a bigger pot means a bigger cut even at a lower percentage. The second is how much labor the job takes, since forty years of accumulation costs far more in staffing hours than a tidy condo. The third is your local market. In dense metro areas with a dozen competing firms, rates trend lower. In rural areas with one operator serving three counties, they trend higher.
Watch for the minimum. Many companies will not take a job unless the estate is expected to gross at least $5,000 to $10,000. Some will take a smaller job but attach a minimum guaranteed fee, meaning if the sale brings in $3,000 and their minimum is $2,000, you are handing over two thirds of the total.
What the Estate Sale Company Commission Actually Covers
The commission pays for labor, expertise, and liability, and that is a genuinely real service. A good estate sale company is not just running a garage sale for you.
Here is what a competent firm does for that 35%. They sort every drawer, closet, and box in the house. They research and price hundreds or thousands of individual items, which is the part people underestimate the most. They stage the home so it reads as a shop instead of a house. They advertise the sale to their existing buyer list, plus the estate sale listing sites. They staff the sale itself over two or three days, handling crowds, negotiation, theft prevention, and payment. And they carry insurance, so when a stranger trips on the stairs during your sale, it is their problem and not yours.
That buyer list matters more than most families realize. An established company can put 300 motivated shoppers through a house on a Friday morning. You cannot do that with a Facebook post.
The Fees Estate Sale Companies Charge Beyond Commission
The commission is the number they lead with. The fees are the numbers that show up in the contract, and this is where families get caught.
Common additional charges include a setup or staging fee, sometimes flat and sometimes hourly, that can run from a few hundred dollars to well over a thousand on a large home. Advertising fees are sometimes separate rather than baked into the commission. Credit card processing gets passed through at 3% or so on card sales. Trash and disposal charges apply to whatever gets hauled away. Cleanout fees are the big one, because after the sale ends there is always a pile of unsold items, and clearing a house to broom-clean condition costs real money.
Some contracts also include a buyer’s premium, which is an extra 10% to 15% added to the purchase price and charged to the buyer at checkout. That premium usually goes to the company, not to you, and it quietly suppresses what buyers are willing to pay for your items.
Estate Sale Company Charges vs Selling the Big Items Yourself
Here is the math that changes the decision for most families. Estate sale commissions are flat percentages, so they cost you the same 35% on a $40 lamp as they do on a $4,000 hot tub. The lamp is worth paying 35% on. The hot tub usually is not.
| Item | Typical resale price | You keep at 35% commission | You keep selling it separately |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hot tub, 6-person, 5 years old | $2,500 | $1,625 | $2,500 |
| Peloton Bike+ | $1,200 | $780 | $1,200 |
| Sectional sofa, good condition | $900 | $585 | $900 |
| Refrigerator, 3 years old | $700 | $455 | $700 |
| Box of kitchen items | $40 | $26 | Not worth your time |
Look at the top four rows. Those four items alone represent roughly $1,745 of commission on a $5,300 haul. That is money you keep simply by pulling them out of the estate sale and selling them on their own.
The bottom row is the counterargument, and it is a good one. Nobody wants to individually list a box of kitchen items and forty pounds of costume jewelry. That is exactly the work an estate sale company is good at, and paying 35% to make it disappear is fair.
So the honest answer is not “hire one” or “do not hire one.” It is “split the estate.” Let the company handle the long tail of small goods, and handle the big-ticket pieces yourself, because that is where the commission actually bites.
When an Estate Sale Company Is Worth the Charge, and When It Is Not
An estate sale company earns its commission when the estate is large, varied, and full of items you cannot price yourself.
Hire one if the house is genuinely full. Forty years of accumulation across four bedrooms, a basement, and a garage is a labor problem, and the fee is fair payment for solving it. Hire one if there are antiques, art, jewelry, or collectibles, because mispricing a single piece from the right maker can cost you more than the entire commission. Hire one if you live out of state, since managing a house clearance from 1,200 miles away is the exact situation these firms exist for. And hire one if the emotional weight is too much. Plenty of families pay the 35% specifically so they do not have to spend a Saturday haggling with strangers over their mother’s dishes. That is a completely legitimate reason.
Skip it when the value is concentrated. If most of what the estate is worth sits in a hot tub, a home gym, a sectional, and a refrigerator, an estate sale company is an expensive way to sell four things. Skip it when the expected gross is under roughly $5,000, because the minimum fee will eat the proceeds. And skip it when the cleanout fee exceeds what the leftovers are worth, which happens more than you would think.
For the big items, this is where a service like ours fits. Commonplace is built for exactly the things an estate sale takes 35% on: the hot tub, the Peloton, the sectional, the fridge, the patio set. Our drivers come to the house, pick the item up, inspect it, and deliver it to the buyer, and the buyer gets to test it before paying. You never meet a stranger in your driveway and you never move anything heavy. If you want the specifics, here is how it works.
How to Vet an Estate Sale Company Before You Sign
Every estate sale contract is negotiable, and most families never try. Work through this list before you sign anything.
- Get three written quotes. Rates vary by 15 percentage points or more in the same zip code. The first company you call is almost never the cheapest.
- Ask for the all-in number, not the commission. Make them write down commission plus setup plus advertising plus cleanout plus disposal. Then compare that total across all three bids.
- Ask how big their buyer list is. This is the thing you are actually paying for. A company with 4,000 local subscribers is worth more than one with 200, and they should be happy to tell you.
- Ask who prices the items and what their background is. If the answer is vague, the antiques in the house are at risk.
- Read the unsold-goods clause carefully. Find out exactly who owns what does not sell, and what it costs you to have it removed.
- Confirm they carry liability insurance. Ask for the certificate. Strangers are about to walk through the house.
- Pull the big items out of the contract before you sign. This is the single highest-value move on this list. Excluding five large items from the commission can put four figures back in the family’s pocket, and most companies will agree to it if you ask up front.
That last point is worth repeating. The commission is negotiable, and the scope is negotiable. Nobody will volunteer that information to you.
Pricing the Items You Keep Out of the Sale
If you pull the big pieces out, you need to price them correctly, and this is where families lose the money they just saved.
The rule is simple. Look up what the item actually sold for recently, not what it is listed for. Asking prices are fiction. Sold prices are real. Most large household goods in good working condition land somewhere between 40% and 60% of original retail, and they drop faster in the first two years than in the five years after that. The full method is in how to price used items to sell.
Appliances have their own buyers and move fast when priced right, and we covered where to list them in where to sell used appliances. Furniture is the category families most often give away out of pure exhaustion, which is a shame: the resale numbers are better than most people expect, and this guide walks through the listing process. For hot tubs, usually the single most valuable thing in a backyard, start with our hot tub resale page.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much do estate sale companies charge on average?
Between 30% and 50% of gross sales, with 35% to 40% being the most common. Larger and more valuable estates get lower rates, and messier or smaller estates get higher ones. Expect additional fees for setup, advertising, disposal, and post-sale cleanout on top of the commission.
Is an estate sale company worth the commission?
Usually yes, if the house is full of many small and varied items you cannot price yourself. Usually no, if most of the value sits in a handful of large items like a hot tub, a home gym, or major appliances. The best outcome for most families is a split: the company takes the long tail of small goods, and the big pieces get sold separately.
Can you negotiate an estate sale company’s commission?
Yes, and you should. Both the rate and the scope are negotiable. Get three written quotes, compare the all-in cost rather than the headline percentage, and ask to exclude your highest-value items from the commission before you sign.
What happens to items that do not sell at an estate sale?
It depends entirely on your contract. Some companies donate leftovers and give you the tax receipt, some keep them as part of their compensation, and some charge you a cleanout fee to haul them away. This clause is one of the most expensive things in the agreement and one of the least read.
How long does an estate sale take from start to finish?
Typically three to six weeks. The company needs one to three weeks to sort, research, price, and stage the home, then the sale itself runs two to three days, usually over a weekend. Cleanout happens in the days after. If you are under a probate or closing deadline, say so before you sign, because scheduling is often the real constraint.
Estate sale companies charge 30% to 50% of gross, and for a house full of a thousand small things, that is money well spent. The mistake is letting that same percentage ride on the handful of items that carry most of the value. A 35% commission on a $2,500 hot tub is $875 to sell one thing that a single buyer will happily come and get. So if you are clearing a house right now, walk through it and write down every item worth more than $500. Those are the ones to pull out of the contract before you sign.
If you have big items to move, list them with us and we will handle the pickup, the inspection, and the delivery. Our drivers do the lifting and you get paid, without a stranger ever setting foot in the house. And if you are on the other side of this, furnishing a home rather than clearing one, estate-clearance items are some of the best-value inventory out there. Every large item that comes through Commonplace is inspected before it reaches you, and you get to test it before you pay a dollar.