Thanks for the info.
Will be facing another case of trusting an estate liquidator for my mom’s estate since she passed late last year. Who do you trust? I’m not sure how to vet these people. Recommendations? I tried that once and got burned.
If you can be present, an estate sale can be monitored. Around here, they are now largely on line by auctioneers, where you can see the whole show. I am just amazed at what people will bid on their phones, even more so than live. Why? Who knows? Look at the auction listings in the local papers to see the auctioneers who do the job from photography to collecting the $$ to loading up the stuff.
Even though most government agencies are loaded with clock-watching bureaucrats, there are a few who genuinely care about the agency mission and are willing to provide guidance. You can sometimes find them by explaining your circumstances, and asking who is knowledgeable and can help answer some questions.
Get copies of contracts before signing anything, read them closely, and ask a lot of questions about business practices. Make sure than any promises or representations you want to rely on are clearly in writing in the contract.
Consult an experienced elder law attorney. You might find one by checking with local attorneys you know, bar certifications and advertising, and even reviewing law suit filings to find one or more who have represented plaintiffs against crooked estate liquidators.
The better course may be to go through your mother's possessions with a close eye as to what is worth keeping, what should be discarded, and what should be sold. My brother and I are doing that with my mother's possessions in the family home.
After a lifetime of hoarding by my mother, the task is formidable but sometimes worthwhile. Most things get thrown out or donated to Goodwill, the Salvation Army, or St. Vincent De Paul's. Every now and then we find something useful enough to keep, like high quality sets of china or tableware, or caches of old family photos and letters.