Estate Cleanout | 7-minute read
Estate Talks | Estate Cleanout Company Owner | Sam Richardson
Main Link: Estate Talks Podcast: From Executor to Estate Cleanout Professional
What could you learn from someone who has been both an executor and a junk removal and estate cleanout company owner/operator? Executorium Publisher George Compton interviews cleanout company, It’s Haul Good’s co-owner, Sam Richardson to explore the subject of estate cleanout.
Different companies approach this task differently. There is no standard. There is no organization or guidelines to prefer how an estate cleanout is supposed to go. Estate cleanout professional Sam Richardson’s experience as an executor is helpful as executorium asks questions about the different approaches to cleanout.
This episode of Executorium’s Estate Talks was broadcast on Wednesday, November 22, 2023.
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The following transcript has been edited for readability.
EX: Welcome to Estate Talks. I’m George Compton Publisher of Executorium. Estate Administration can be a challenge. Executorium seeks to provide a view of the landscape. Estate Talks are short format videos about 5 to 10 minutes, and our goal is to provide the executor with the estate administration context, resources, and information. Today our guest is Sam Richardson. He’s the owner of It’s Haul Good. It’s Haul Good is a junk removal company in Northern Virginia specializing in estate cleanouts and downsizing. Hello Sam!
SR: Hey George how’s it going?
EX: It’s going good thank you for joining us. Let’s get right at it. You were an executor, right?
SR: Yes sir I sure was.
EX: Okay, and you’re the owner of a junk removal and estate cleanout company. But let me ask you to put your estate executor hat on for a minute.
SR: Okay I can definitely do that.
EX: What do you want the cleanout company to know?
SR: Yeah so you know a little pretext – starting back in 2014 I was the primary caretaker for my dad as he was passing away from cancer. At the end of that experience when he inevitably passed, we ended up, me and my sister (we were both in our early 20s, as well as my 84-year-old grandfather) all worked together to start downsizing my father’s estate. That being said, that’s what led me to starting a junk removal business. Now that I am in those shoes, looking back in the executor seat or somebody who’s just having to deal with an estate, that I would have really have loved to know from my perspective now. I think that from the very get-go one of those questions is, just simply, who do I even need in this situation? Obviously, the house usually has to be emptied – but there’s so many questions around the things that are still valuable to me personally – carry some personal value, family value. Then there’s the monetary side and then making sure you’re not getting taken advantage of. It’s a very vulnerable time in our lives so there’s a lot of questions from the junk removal perspective that I can offer here.
EX: That’s exactly it and every executor that may be watching can or will be able to appreciate that that that very sentiment, which is you don’t exactly know what the first move is. Who can you trust? Are you going for a complete house cleanout? Have you removed the stuff that is going to be distributed to your siblings or the other heirs. What about emotional contents, and things of that nature? I think a question that could sum this up would be, understanding that every estate is different, you’ve got you know one-bedroom apartments, you’ve got mansions with multiple rooms and a lot of square feet, so those are different situations. You’re also as a cleanout company going to find houses in different states. People have had estate sales. People have had auctions. People have had liquidation. That said, can we distinguish between, “clear the house” and perhaps more of a partnership model where you liquidate the contents?
SR: Absolutely and this is a really good distinction I’m glad that you framed it that way. First and foremost there is the “I have little to no support”. Think about if you’re a family member or you’re handling the estate and it’s out of your out of your area; so it’s not your hometown or maybe you’ve left your hometown. You’re left with an estate and you don’t have any resources, or really trusted people who you know in that area, where maybe your parents were retiring (or maybe grandparents). So [you’re] in a situation where everything’s got to go, but there’s a lot of stuff, and you don’t have a lot of plays to call in terms of getting rid of it organically through family friends (and) colleagues. One of the first things to keep in mind is that it’s a huge undertaking. These are the types of folks – “estate clean out” – especially when you’re talking about it as a service (who) really come into play. Because otherwise, it can be a bit of a slower process. If you’re only going to come into town for a couple of weekends to try to tackle something this, you know, gigantic, you might be looking at a company who you know kind of like us who brands themselves as an estate cleanout company. This is going to be somebody who takes a high level of care to make sure that the personal belongings that you have, that your family member had, maybe some family heirlooms, photo albums, tax documents; you want these types of things to be handled with extreme caution and care. Obviously, things that maybe carry sentimental value you want turned back over to you. Things that are more monetary value, as you’re closing the estate you have a fiduciary responsibility here to make sure that money matters are taken very carefully. (How can you assure) These types of things, bonds, etc. (that kind of stuff) is turned back over to you. This is really where you want somebody who has some some longevity and really a lot of credibility in the marketplace to make sure they take care of those things.
But not every not every project is that substantial, that large, and kind of needs that much handholding. In some cases, it’s just as simple as, like you said, an estate sale company has come in, or “All my family members have already come to the home – they’ve gone through all the estate, we’ve looked through all the belongings, everything that’s left just needs to go.” These are very simple type projects and oftentimes this is where maybe the solely junk removal (service), who doesn’t necessarily specialize as the estate cleanout person, could come in and help out and maybe even have a little bit of a price break.
But you still obviously want to make sure that the items that can be recycled are getting recycled; people are insured, you know. There’s a huge opportunity to do good in the community with donations and of course, I’m sure you’d like to see your family stuff go back into the community for a second life, so hopefully that gives you an answer there .
You know not every estate’s the same, but just trying to give a kind of a broad overview of how “estate cleanout” versus just junk removal can operate.
EX: Clearly I can hear the experience of your duties and responsibilities as an executor in all of that and anyone who’s watching can as well if they’ve gone a little bit down that down the estate administration Road. Yes every estate is different. So, with that said, how would you (and you mentioned this a little in previous answer), how would you vet a company for handling your estate cleanout?
SR: I’ll answer this as transparently as I would if I if I was doing another estate outside of my market and outside of where my company exists this is exactly the approach I would take [as an executor]. The first thing I would do is reach out to a professional in the estate world who has a very large oversight such as an attorney, maybe somebody who specializes in probate, like a real estate agent who specializes in the estate world. Somebody who I would trust, who has a large degree of regulation, (I would) call and say, “Hey who do you trust for this type of work?” That can usually be a really good starting point and then (have they) referred this type of person before? A great question to ask those individuals, those professionals, I would say, “Have you actually personally worked with them or referred them?” That’s a really good indicator of how much they actually trust them. Another really key thing, I think sometimes to know, is, whether there’s a financial reciprocation? Do they get paid to refer a company? I think sometimes that can potentially be something to consider and weigh as you’re balancing out trust and who’s coming from who?
Then then the other side of it is, if for some reason you can’t get a really good pulse on anybody, or nobody has a good contact, because junk removal is still fairly new in the marketplace, if they don’t have a trusted professional, go look you can go look online. Google does a really good job, I think, of listing people honestly and fairly. You have to be careful just looking at reviews because sometimes those can be a little bit inflated due to some different ways of getting around it.
Call a company up and you really want to ask them a few major things: 1. Are you insured? So you’re looking for really decent Insurance. 2. You want to make sure that all of their employees are vetted to some degree, so having background checked employees is a really important question to ask. 3. You also want to ask if they would be willing to provide a certificate of insurance.
EX: Certainly.
SR: That’s maybe not necessary for All occasions, but certainly a good one to test the integrity. And then the last thing is, just ask them how long they’ve been in business. Then of course what happens to the things that you find inside the home. As you’re going through things what does that look like? Then that leads you into the pricing and all that good stuff.
Those questions for sure should be the just the starting point of I’m (you’re) even going to entertain working with this organization.
EX: Excellent what about, you know, this is you know grandfather stuff, it seems ancient, but what about the Better Business Bureau? Would you use them as a good vetting point?
SR: I would say Better Business Bureau is great for well established businesses. [They] will often be on the Better Business Bureau because the BBB is a a paid organization. There’s so many things you can pay to kind of gain credibility these days, but I will say a lot of really good companies do have a have a good Better Business Bureau presence. I don’t know that you’ll find a huge percentage of companies, that are in our industry, represented on the Better Business Bureau. At least not until they get to a national franchise level.
EX: One thing is fair to point out is you know there is no association or standardization of junk cleanout and estate cleanout companies, so even more so your counsel on how to vet just the right company for your situation is very important.
My next question would be, prior to cleanout day, as an executor, how would you prep the property?
SR: Really good question. So, this is probably something that will vary from situation to situation. If you are really wanting to make sure that you have a high level of preservation – maybe this is a sudden passing away of somebody, and this has just fallen into your lap very quickly. In a lot of cases, you’re going to want to try to go in the home, go into the estate (in my case I was even going through storage units that were packed to the brim, and some other off-site storage). So, you want to really try to get your hands on as many things and start making a list of things that may be in the family, that you are looking for, that you haven’t been able to locate. So, once you have a really good list, as it pertains to junk removal, estate cleanouts – you want to make sure that all the items you’re looking for are detailed and noted. So, that whoever you get involved, whether it be just an estate cleanout service, maybe even a professional organizer, or some of the other people who get involved at this stage, that they have something to go off of, and that they can help find and locate for you. We operate off of these all the time, and it really helps us to be very precise and making sure. You’re talking about sometimes upwards of 10 to 12, 15 people inside of a home. Everyone needs to be on the same gameplan looking for the same things, especially if they carry sentimental value.
And then the other thing is, know you don’t have to do it all in one giant go. If your situation allows, sometimes it’s a lot easier to take a room at a time and just have a small pick-up here and there. Take away some furniture, some personal belongings, one room at a time. It really can be very overwhelming if you’re having people come clear a whole house in a day. Sometimes that’s necessary, but if you’re going one room at a time, it just really helps to set things aside.
That being said I will I will kind of demystify this real quick… you don’t have to separate things. From donation, junk removal, recycling, in most cases, a companies in our industry will often do that right there on site. It doesn’t have to be done prior to our arrival. it saves you a lot of time as you’re kind of going through things without having to pre-sort; kind of speeds up the process as well.
EX: That’s great Sam. I always say you eat an elephant one bite at a time. I think that applies to estate administration and particularly the subset of cleanout. It’s the big hairy monster that renders a lot of people incapacitated. It’s often so very massive and emotional.
So any parting advice for a successful estate cleanout?
SR: I will say that if you are looking to have help, if this is a service you think you’re going to need, the biggest thing is I would just say, look for someone who does clarify that they focus on estate cleanouts, that they have a little bit of context behind just claiming that they do it. You’re looking for some generated content on their website that specifically states how they’ve helped people. Maybe they’re talking about some other organizations they’re partnered with, Senior Move Managers or Professional Organizers. You want somebody who doesn’t just claim this as a service because in our industry it is a very lucrative service. We’re talking about a fairly expensive, sometimes high value service that people will try to attempt, but not do very well. So make sure you find somebody who really understands what they’re getting into, that you’re working with a good professional who’s going to take care of you. At the end of the day, it’s a very vulnerable time for all of us in our lives. I know I certainly was, and it’s very easy for someone to come in and take advantage of a situation. So again, just really make sure you’re putting that due diligence in on the front end, so that you can avoid the bad situations that can come from hiring somebody who’s unqualified or unprofessional and doesn’t really do what we do.
EX: Thank you Sam that’s the whole point of this. We want executors to miss some of those pain points.
Your knowledge and advice is very helpful and I want to thank you for your time being on in the middle of the day. Sam Richardson of It’s Haul Good in Northern Virginia – Thank you.
I’m George Compton for Executorium with Estate Talks. Thank you for joining us.
Sam Richardson
Bio
Sam Richardson, one of the co-founders of It’s Haul Good in Fairfax, Virginia, intimately understands the emotional journey of estate cleanouts. In 2014, he faced the poignant task of downsizing his father’s estate after his passing, experiencing the heartache of parting with cherished memories while seeking purposeful uses for his belongings.
Sam brings his experience to every job Its Haul Good undertakes. A commitment to service as well as to the environment and community is part of their model as every cleanout is also an opportunity to move useable items on to one of their many local donation partners, as well as keeping things out of landfills through responsible recycling practices.
Disclaimer: The opinions of Executorium’s Estate Talks hosts and Estate Talks guests is not necessarily the opinion of Executorium.com LLC, its principals or its employees.
