0:03
hello beautiful people today I'm going
0:05
to be getting into a topic that's very
0:08
relevant for anyone thinking about
0:10
moving abroad anyone I'm going to talk
0:12
about what I've learned from managing my
0:15
own estate sale yes as in I sold all of
0:19
my belongings from my uh outside of my
0:23
house outside of my home and Investments
0:25
I'm talking about my car my plates my
0:29
purses my shoes my boots my clothing my
0:33
my pots and pans my decorative items my
0:36
artwork on the wall I mean I found out I
0:39
own so much stuff more than I ever
0:42
dreamed more than what I realized I own
0:44
when I'm moving from one from within the
0:47
same country when I'm taking my
0:48
belongings with me because when you're
0:50
doing that you're not necessarily
0:52
counting how many plates how many Forks
0:54
how many spoons you know you're not
0:56
counting any of that you're not getting
0:58
to some boxes that are just storage so
1:00
when you're selling your own stuff you
1:02
get into everything and I realize I am
1:05
I'm a single person I live alone I had
1:08
two dogs but I realized I had enough
1:11
things for three people and possibly
1:13
four I don't know I had a lot of things
1:16
but I want to tell you about six things
1:19
I learned from selling my own belongings
1:21
so if you're dreaming of moving abroad
1:23
stick around because um I'm going to
1:26
give you some great tips that'll help
1:28
you with your planning and your
1:29
transition into that so hi there my name
1:32
is Marcia Hilton and I'm a move abroad
1:34
coach I help black women who want to
1:39
move abroad take steps towards that goal
1:42
I'm an Air Force veteran a former
1:46
corporate marketing strategist and a
1:48
Serial entrepreneur uh my biggest
1:50
company having been an a marketing
1:52
agency I own in Houston with I don't
1:54
know eight employees of several
1:57
contractors all of that um and I'm a
2:00
multicountry citizen resident I help
2:04
black women save time keep their money
2:07
in their pocket and maximize their
2:10
profits from estate sales and I help
2:13
black women monetize their existing
2:15
skill set to become digital Nomads
2:18
because you know having run a multi
2:21
multiple businesses I've learned a few
2:23
things um it's it's all about building
2:26
though the cash Reserve because if
2:28
you're moving to an entirely new country
2:30
that's especially important and it's
2:32
about making your move abroad possible
2:35
and funding your new international life
2:39
exciting New Life while you're here
2:41
don't forget to subscribe to my channel
2:44
you just gotta hit subscribe and if you
2:47
like this video if you like anything in
2:50
this video if you got a good tip from
2:52
this video please please give it a
2:54
thumbs up and it's also a great way to
2:57
let YouTube know um that you they should
2:59
show show you similar content this is
3:01
the kind of stuff you want to know about
3:02
moving abroad things to help you through
3:04
the process all the good things and if
3:07
you have questions from this video or
3:09
other questions about mov abroad or the
3:12
topics I told you I discussed and
3:14
there's more um just hit the
3:17
notification Bell the little bell icon
3:19
so whenever I go live you can come on
3:22
join the community and ask your
3:24
questions you can get them answered
3:26
right so check it out go go go subscribe
3:30
go um hit like if you really love this
3:33
and hit notification bell all right so I
3:37
have five lessons six lessons I added
3:39
one at the last minute and I want to go
3:40
through them now um I do have limited
3:43
time so I'm sorry if I talk a little
3:45
fast but I think there's a way for you
3:46
to slow down the videos on YouTube now
3:49
the first one I Learned was and it
3:51
worked well out well for me is don't
3:52
hire an estate sale company unless you
3:55
absolutely NE you absolutely need to and
3:58
if you do so make sure you do thorough
4:01
research now hiring a company to manage
4:04
the sales of my items it depends on what
4:07
you have um how much your things are
4:09
valued how much you pay for your stuff
4:11
anyway and the quantity of things you
4:13
have and also your own energy and time
4:15
in my case I looked into hiring a
4:17
company because I have autoimmune
4:20
illnesses and sometimes I don't have the
4:22
level of energy I have today as a matter
4:23
of fact it took me a couple weeks to get
4:25
to this video because I just wasn't
4:26
having the energy I needed and today I
4:28
was like ooh I have a little energy let
4:30
me get this done so here I am helping
4:33
you with that but I H tried to hire an
4:35
estate sale company because I know I
4:37
can't rely on myself to always have
4:39
energy and feel well um that was my
4:41
primary reason also because I have
4:43
things that I really spent good money on
4:45
my things and I wanted to make sure I
4:48
could get the most out of it um and I'm
4:52
actually in my house you can see it's an
4:53
empty
4:54
house all my things are gone but my
4:57
house is on the market so
5:00
I looked into companies I got a um
5:05
referral from my agent she didn't say
5:07
she knew the company was good but it was
5:09
the company she knew about she sent me
5:11
two two n two phone numbers anyway and I
5:14
reached out to the company and I met
5:17
with a lady and I liked her a lot she
5:18
brought her assistant I like them a lot
5:20
as people I like them and then I was
5:22
pretty happy and thought I think I'll
5:25
hire her because I wanted to go the easy
5:27
route and just say I got a referral she
5:29
came I liked her let's do it but when
5:32
she went away to send me her contract I
5:35
decided to do the due diligence do a
5:37
little research and she's been in
5:39
business for I think over a decade so I
5:41
did research online her website wasn't
5:44
impressive but you know I could let that
5:45
pass let that slide but I went on to
5:50
find some um her reviews and I found
5:54
three reviews she's been in in business
5:56
for over a decade three reviews online
5:58
two of them were very very very short
6:00
and they were from people that who had
6:02
come to the estate sales to buy products
6:05
so they weren't as relevant to me
6:07
because I'm the person hiring her to
6:09
sell my products and they were very
6:10
short like two liners the third one I
6:13
came across was from an actual client
6:15
and oh my goodness that person it was a
6:18
scathing review I mean she really just
6:20
tore her up and it went on and on if I
6:23
printed it probably would have been like
6:24
two and a half three pages of copy she
6:27
really tore her she went into detail
6:29
about what happened and why she was
6:30
upset so you could have the whole story
6:32
or her version of the story it was hard
6:35
to ignore that I mean that's the only
6:37
after 10 years plus in business that's
6:39
all I had to look at so I called her and
6:43
I let her know that I just couldn't go
6:45
forward with her I told her why and what
6:47
I saw she sounds really sad and she was
6:50
telling me Oh that lady was you know she
6:52
was sharing her version of it the story
6:53
but at the same time that's all I had um
6:56
and liking her wasn't enough this was
6:59
about my stuff this is about my money
7:01
and I had worked really hard for my
7:03
money and um so I decided to not go with
7:07
her I told her I gave her some tips
7:11
because I come from business and
7:13
marketing and I gave her some tips
7:14
because I was trying to be helpful I was
7:16
like you know you may want to reach out
7:17
to people you've worked for you should
7:19
have a long email list from having
7:21
emailed them reach out to them tell them
7:23
you know a little background ask them if
7:25
they'd be kind enough to write you a
7:27
short review because you've been in
7:28
business for all these years is you have
7:30
that Client List please do that for
7:31
yourself because I want to see you do
7:33
better in the future I don't want that
7:35
to come back to hurt you every time um
7:37
but I you know couldn't move forward
7:39
with you can't move forward with you
7:41
seeing what I saw and that's all I have
7:43
to go with so I got a referral to
7:45
another or I looked online and looked at
7:48
another company and she had I think a
7:51
three star it was hard to find companies
7:54
with good reviews in Google I think some
7:57
for some reason I decided to reach out
7:58
to her and or maybe it was Facebook I
8:00
saw the stars and I reached out to her
8:03
and um she I met with her and she was I
8:08
I have a tendency to like people very
8:09
easily so I liked her and she left and I
8:12
asked her to send me a contract so we
8:14
can I can look it over and make a
8:15
decision she sent me a contract but it
8:17
was like she just threw some words
8:18
together on a Word document there was no
8:20
logo there was nothing and that's I
8:21
could have let that slide like the words
8:23
were there but it didn't tell me enough
8:26
and I also decided to do a little more
8:28
in-depth research I looked on Facebook
8:31
where I'd seen the Stars read through
8:32
the reviews and she had 62 or so
8:35
reviews every review was from someone
8:37
who came to the sale to buy the products
8:39
and all they kept saying is how cheap
8:42
the products were how affordable all how
8:44
they go to all her sales because they
8:46
can always get things for um sorry I got
8:49
a little pop up here for a very low
8:51
price and that scared the heck out of me
8:53
I was like no way am I going to I can't
8:56
do that I can't do that that's not the
8:58
way like just selling all my stuff cheap
9:01
I understand I'm not going to get like
9:02
you know a new new um the amount of
9:06
money I would get for something if it
9:07
was new but at the same time yeah that's
9:10
not going to work for me so let me see
9:12
what else was there so I let her know
9:14
that as well I reached out to another
9:16
gentleman that someone referred me to
9:17
and he or I looked in another town that
9:19
was a little further away and I found
9:20
him great reviews even from clients but
9:24
he says he does like the multi-million
9:26
dollar contract so I was like I'm not
9:29
that right my house is right now on the
9:31
market for around 600,000 and it's still
9:34
been here four months but it's priced
9:36
right it's just the market and then um I
9:39
wasn't looking for him to sell my house
9:40
anyway my belongings didn't cost that
9:42
much you know but he needed that kind of
9:45
sale and that I wasn't that person so it
9:47
wasn't going to work so I decided after
9:48
all that effort and time to just go
9:50
ahead and do it myself like I I can do
9:53
this I just got to pace myself because I
9:55
know my energy level I just gotta um
10:00
I just gotta do it just one step at a
10:03
time so from being you know doing
10:05
project management and marketing and in
10:08
business ownership I went back to those
10:10
skills and I have a handyman who works
10:12
with me when needed so I had him come
10:14
and I schedule for him to come once a
10:16
week to help me but I scheduled out the
10:18
entire thing like I'm going to do this
10:20
over in my case I'm going to do this
10:22
over well first I went through and
10:23
categorize my items and then I decided
10:27
um that I would would you know just sort
10:30
of do this over several weeks so one of
10:33
the lessons I learned was as I was doing
10:35
this was to price my items fairly now
10:37
yes I was very disappointed when I went
10:39
to look for pricing because and tried to
10:42
do comparative P pricing because
10:44
everything was selling for much lower
10:46
than it started out but I had to decide
10:49
if sorry guys I had to decide if um I
10:53
don't if you could hear that reminder
10:55
pop up I had to decide if I wanted to
10:57
move abroad enough to keep this going or
11:00
if I want to put all the stuff in
11:01
storage and just lose money over time
11:04
paying for storage and then coming back
11:05
like a lot of people do and deciding I
11:07
don't really want this stuff anyway I
11:09
didn't want to do that so I was like
11:10
I've made my decision I'm committed to
11:12
my decision I am going to move forward
11:14
let's get this done so I started getting
11:17
on on the different platforms um and
11:20
looking at pricing and comparing prices
11:23
one of my first stops was always to take
11:24
a picture of an item by the way I only
11:26
did this with items that were high
11:28
priced or items that were larger it just
11:32
it just depending on the item depended
11:34
on the item so I took pictures of the
11:37
item I uploaded to I'm drawing a blank
11:41
right now what it's called um Google are
11:45
you guys familiar with Google imagery
11:47
the
11:48
Google let me see if I can do this for
11:50
you really
11:51
quickly I'm draw in a blank here Google
11:54
Lens I think it's called I didn't Google
11:57
Lens I think I pulled it up took a
11:58
picture went to Google Lens it became
12:00
really fast for me to do that after a
12:02
while and it pulls up others that are
12:04
similar sometimes there are things that
12:05
were rare I found out I had some things
12:07
that were antiques that someone gave me
12:10
two decades ago and I kept I didn't know
12:13
but um I did that and I would find
12:17
pricing and then I would decide is my
12:19
stuff old is in worn out or whatever or
12:22
is it in good condition and I would
12:24
price it whatever range I found I would
12:26
price mine either in the middle or
12:27
higher because I live alone a lot of my
12:30
things just stayed in in in Exquisite in
12:32
top condition and it it would all look
12:36
new so I just priced it from mid-range
12:40
and higher within the range of what I
12:42
saw and oftentimes the range was not as
12:44
high as I would have liked it to be so I
12:47
did that with my car my car was the
12:49
first thing I did and I got pricing from
12:52
Blue Kelly Blue Book my
12:56
dealership and CarMax and CarMax offered
13:00
me the most because my car is in
13:02
excellent condition it was
13:04
uh 4 six
13:10
wait it was a 7-year old car and it had
13:14
177,000 miles it was a Mercedes-Benz
13:17
convertible it was SE 177,000 miles it
13:20
stayed in the garage a lot I did it all
13:22
did all the maintenance it was in
13:23
excellent shape it CLE it looked really
13:25
new and clean so CarMax gave me the best
13:28
deal they offered 4,000 more than
13:31
Mercedes-Benz did so I went with them so
13:33
that went fast and then I've been
13:35
relying on Uber since but I don't go out
13:37
that much so you know and so I went onto
13:40
my belongings which was a
13:42
lot I decided to price the items using
13:45
the different tips I gave you but there
13:47
are more tips I can give you but by the
13:49
way I have this um this download called
13:53
organize and sell which is just about
13:55
this about pricing your items organizing
13:58
your items selling your items maximizing
14:00
your profit um just doing the best to
14:03
get to manage this yourself and make the
14:05
most money and keep money in your pocket
14:07
that's available on my website but I
14:09
will also be sure to include a link in
14:12
the video description so you can go
14:14
through this process on your own walks
14:15
you through I even give you templates
14:17
that I use for organizing and
14:19
instructions about how to use them
14:21
because it takes a little time and for
14:22
some people um I'm semi-retired so I
14:26
don't really do a lot sometimes and but
14:28
I also don't have a lot of energy so for
14:30
me even though there's time there's no
14:31
energy so it'll work for you even if
14:33
you're working full-time or have a lot
14:35
going on because I had really limited
14:37
energy meaning really limited time in my
14:40
case um so that and I still got it done
14:43
all right so I learned to one not hire
14:47
an a estate sale company unless you do
14:49
unless you find one that's really
14:50
impressive number two price your items
14:52
fairly and like I said in the organiz
14:55
and sale toolkit I can I provide much
14:57
more information about that and and I
14:59
priced took at a very fair um price so
15:03
number three is promote your up number
15:04
three of six is promote your upcoming
15:06
sales and build an email list starting
15:08
with day one so here's what I did what I
15:10
learned what I did I um starting with I
15:13
don't know if you guys have the you are
15:15
on the nextdoor.com app but I started
15:17
there uh they have their own rules about
15:19
how you can go about doing that to make
15:21
sure you read through it I started
15:23
listing my items I provided full
15:27
descriptions and in the organizing sale
15:29
toolkit I actually provide you templates
15:30
on all that so you can do it the right
15:32
way and I went into Facebook Marketplace
15:37
I followed their format I provide
15:38
templates on that too to make sure
15:39
you're covered and then I also went to
15:43
Facebook groups that were local they all
15:45
have their own rules but just make sure
15:46
you read through it and I went from
15:49
there Facebook was like crazy amounts of
15:51
responses but it wasn't as filtered as
15:53
the other places meaning you got people
15:55
who were trying to get your things for a
15:56
dollar and people are willing to pay the
15:58
price you list said it's all over the
16:00
place so I usually responded and you get
16:02
you got to respond to a lot of people so
16:04
I didn't use them as much until I wasn't
16:07
selling something and then I pushed off
16:08
Facebook but I kept it listed there I
16:10
listed the items there because those
16:12
people some of them will show up at your
16:14
estate sale you want to call it the
16:16
garage sale yard sale estate sale gives
16:19
more of the impression of um they're not
16:21
expecting to pay a buck for something
16:23
that's $1,000 okay so you can say garage
16:26
sale because people are going to be
16:27
coming there expecting one1 and $2 items
16:30
all right
16:31
so I decided to use those platforms and
16:34
their others um I'm not going to go into
16:37
the whole sorting through your items but
16:39
I do provide that in the organize and
16:40
sell toolkit so you can check that out
16:43
all right then so third thing was
16:45
promote your upcoming sales and build an
16:47
email list oh build an email list the
16:49
first sale I had no when I was on
16:51
nextdoor.com I would put in my
16:53
description if you would like to keep
16:55
updated I'll be doing this over the next
16:57
several weekends and here are the kinds
16:59
things you can expect to come in the
17:01
future weekends like by
17:03
categories and I would give tips of the
17:05
kind of things I had like really the
17:07
really appealing and attractive items
17:09
the popular items and then I would say
17:11
if you want to be on that mailing list
17:12
so you know when things are being sold
17:14
um make sure you send me a DM with your
17:16
email address and people that was the
17:18
easiest way to start my email list and I
17:21
start creating that list so I could send
17:23
the emails a group um I would secure
17:26
people's email addresses it would BCC or
17:28
I think at one point I started using a
17:30
tool for that an email marketing tool
17:32
for that but that's how I started my
17:34
list and then at the actual events from
17:37
event number one I had a sheet and I had
17:40
like email and name and then I would
17:42
tell people please print and they would
17:44
come up and I would tell them as they're
17:45
walking around if you want to know about
17:47
the things that are coming up in the
17:48
future make sure you add your name and
17:50
email address here and every week couple
17:53
of days before the sale you'll get dibs
17:56
you'll know first you'll get
17:58
notifications first about what's coming
18:00
up and then you see the pictures you'll
18:02
see videos when I've set up for that
18:04
weekend you'll see all that in advance
18:06
and what happened as a result of that
18:07
was people were outside my garage door
18:10
waiting like especially when there were
18:12
popular items I they were just they
18:15
parked out there some came really early
18:17
and parked and waited to come in and
18:19
they would come in and after a while
18:20
they learned to come in really quickly
18:22
and move towards what they wanted
18:23
because other people are going to want
18:24
it and then I allowed them to take
18:26
things and put in corners like shopping
18:29
cart Corners I guess and and just go
18:31
with these are mine and at some point I
18:33
had to start saying yes those are hers
18:35
those are hers and they would just sort
18:37
of start at one point they started seem
18:39
like they were about to fight over my
18:40
items but it built anticipation so I
18:44
didn't have any problem selling most
18:46
items so promote your upcoming sales
18:48
build an email list number four I've got
18:51
six minutes left number four organize
18:53
your sales by categories and take lots
18:55
of photos and videos I did that now a
18:57
handyman once I organized my schedule
19:00
and the weekends it categorized um I did
19:03
like Furniture which was my last weekend
19:06
I did you know kitchen wear I did um
19:10
clothing women's clothing and the sizes
19:12
and all that and then shoes sizes and
19:14
all that I did all that by weekend so I
19:17
did like clothing and and women's closet
19:19
items in one weekend I did kitchen wear
19:21
in another weekend I did personal items
19:23
like you know I had a lot of lotions and
19:24
things whatever those items brand new
19:27
items um just anything like that so
19:30
organize your items into category and
19:33
then when we set up in the garage my
19:35
handyman would come help me because I
19:36
didn't have the energy a lot of times we
19:38
spend an hour two hours moving things
19:41
organizing things putting them on the
19:42
shelves it looked like a little store
19:44
when you walked in I would go around
19:46
when he left and took pictures of the
19:48
items that were more popular or items I
19:50
wanted to sell more and then I would um
19:54
get warm and my glasses start to see
19:57
that fogging up I'm just so hot just
20:00
kidding all right so I would just go
20:03
around do videos after just walk around
20:06
and sort of do a quick description like
20:07
oh over here we have some wonderful lady
20:09
shoes and all that and then the other
20:11
thing I would do is just take pictures
20:12
of individual not every single thing but
20:14
just groupings of things or individual
20:16
items that I thought would be popular
20:18
like I don't know I had a gamer I had I
20:23
can't remember all the things I had too
20:24
many things but basically I just did
20:26
that I uploaded that to Google Drive
20:29
which I gave access to with a link to
20:31
anyone who was on my email list and
20:34
there are a pictures folder there was a
20:35
video pictures and videos folder there
20:37
was a list folder that told them each
20:39
individual item the higher the bigger
20:42
items the big ticket items um not every
20:45
little thing and they could see and get
20:48
excited about oh my God she has you know
20:51
a IR robot one of the newer ones I want
20:53
that she has a I don't know how big my
20:56
TV
20:57
was oh 75 in TV I want that right so I
21:01
did that to build
21:03
anticipation almost had fight fights
21:05
happen in my garage over those things so
21:08
um organize so make sure you your sales
21:10
by categories and then make sure you
21:11
take lots of pictures and videos so that
21:13
number one was don't hire an estate sale
21:15
company unless absolutely necessary and
21:17
make sure you do your research number
21:19
two is price your items fairly do the
21:21
research around that um but you won't
21:23
always get the price you hope for be
21:25
willing to to move forward with that
21:27
number three was promot your upcoming
21:29
sales and build an email list starting
21:30
from day one and number four was to
21:33
organize your sales by categories take
21:35
photos videos ETC number five is get a
21:37
friend to assist you as I told you my
21:40
handyman was helping me I you know
21:43
haven't made any real friends in this
21:45
town I usually miss my one of my nieces
21:47
says everybody's your friend um but I
21:50
moved to this town being really sick
21:52
with autoimmune symptoms and it took a
21:53
while to figure it out so and then
21:54
there's covid so I made a couple of
21:57
neighbor friends um that's about it but
22:00
my handyman I could rely on him to show
22:02
up and do it and he knew what he was
22:04
getting and not getting because he works
22:05
for me so there we go get someone to
22:08
help you if you can though um you decide
22:10
how you'll compensate them could be that
22:13
they get to pick the nicest purse they
22:14
like just a really nice expensive purse
22:17
or something you decide whatever works
22:19
for you and your friend get someone to
22:20
help you that was number five number six
22:22
is save furniture for last like my house
22:25
is on the market but I was going to be
22:27
living in this house while while selling
22:29
all my things so I pulled away clothing
22:31
and things that I know I'll need and
22:33
keep even with my relocation we um and
22:38
then I need my bed I need my furniture
22:40
so I kept that for last and also those
22:43
big items you're going to get either
22:44
people who have absolutely no interest
22:46
or you're G to get people who want to
22:48
buy in my case people are like oh I'll
22:50
buy everything like they were excited
22:52
like how much but depending on the price
22:54
they some people couldn't afford it um I
22:56
mean I bought some pricey pieces of
22:58
Furniture so I ended up having some
23:02
people buy some smaller items and then I
23:04
had two one individual by quite a few
23:07
items like a room full of items
23:09
basically if you counted the items and
23:11
then one final family that bought
23:13
everything else everything like they
23:16
just kept adding it up on their sheet of
23:18
paper because I had the pricing stickers
23:20
and they're like I want the full bedroom
23:21
set my wife wants the living room and
23:24
you know they were just we want your
23:26
desk in your office that's a nice desk
23:28
but they had already come through in the
23:30
previous sales and I would give a couple
23:31
people who were interested tours of the
23:33
house so they could see I wanted them to
23:35
get excited and they were about what was
23:37
coming in the future on the because they
23:39
could see the calendar they saw what was
23:40
scheduled and they were ready to buy
23:43
those pieces of furniture and they did
23:45
so that was how I managed it now my
23:48
house I don't have a lot of control over
23:50
that just gota wait the markets slow
23:52
down summertime I went to Mexico for
23:55
about seven weeks came back and I'm
23:57
sitting here so right now don't laugh at
23:59
me but I have a blowup double height
24:01
proud of that blowup mattress in my
24:03
bedroom and I stayed in Airbnb a few
24:06
weeks back um and I'm like I'm not
24:08
paying mortgage plus pay for an Airbnb
24:10
so I'm here um and I have things I need
24:14
everything I need plus the clothing I'm
24:15
keeping and all that so I'm good but
24:18
it's not as comfortable as having your
24:20
own stuff but those are the six things I
24:22
learned well six that I'm sharing with
24:25
you today I learned a lot more from
24:27
having a managing my own estate sale yes
24:31
estate sale not garage sale not yard
24:34
sale what are you selling like dollar
24:35
items no so that's what I learned hope
24:38
you got something new out of it don't
24:39
forget to subscribe don't forget to turn
24:42
on notifications for when I go live I'd
24:44
be happy to answer your questions how
24:45
however I can and um don't forget
24:49
to subscribe oh hit a thumbs up if you
24:52
really got something out of this video
24:54
really like the video and also letting
24:56
YouTube know this is the kind of stuff
24:57
you want to see more of slow down the
25:00
video if I was talking too fast I am out
25:02
of time I have exactly one minute left
25:05
you take
25:06
care have a great day bye-bye
25:15
[Music]