Rochester Garage Sales

Listen up, garage sale buyers and sellers! Here’s the top 5 hints to keep you out of trouble at this weekend’s garage or yard sale.

Buyers:

1. Aggressive haggling is a no-no. Remember, you’re not at the sale to buy a huge item like a house or a car. You’re here to unearth a hidden gem, and have some fun in the process. Haggle by all means, but make sure you keep it light-hearted.
2. Treat your host’s garage and yard like you would your own.
3. If you’re bringing along kids, keep an eye on what they’re up to.
4. Consider leaving your pet at home, or at least in the car. Not all garage sale operators, or their customers, appreciate unknown pets entering their yard.
5. Be careful, and make sure your kids are careful, particularly around fragile items. While many garage sale items may look old, they all have some value, and the unwritten rule here is ‘if you break it, you buy it’.

Sellers:

1. Make your customers feel at home. Remember, they’re your guests, and the more they linger the more they’re likely to buy.
2. Keep your pets on a leash, or behind a gate. Not all your guests will feel as comfortable around animals as you do.
3. Open on time. There’s no greater turn-off than a garage sale that opens late.
4. At closing time, if there’s customers still lingering, don’t be in a hurry to usher them out. A few minutes’ patience will be rewarded, if not by a late sale, then at least with good will that will serve you well when your next sale comes around.
5. Whether they’ve bought something or not, before they leave your sale, try to thank as many people as you can for attending. This will make them feel more comfortable if they wish to return later in the day to purchase that item they were wavering on. It will also increase the likelihood they’ll recommend your sale to their friends.

Stick to these basic rules of thumb, and you’ll not only find you’ll have a good time. But you’ll also be more likely to make a profitable transaction!

When planning your garage sale, you should always factor in a time-buffer at the end of your advertised closing time in case you’re doing a roaring trade.

People don’t like to be rushed, and what – apart from a few minutes of your weekend – have you got to loose anyway?

But since you don’t want to stay open just for the sake of it, here’s nine sure ways to gauge if you should extend your opening hours:

1. Your items are still moving.
2. There’s still plenty of people around.
3. On the day of your garage sale you discover that some event – like the end of a football or baseball – game that will send buyer traffic past your home at a particular time.
4. The weather is good, or if it’s been bad all morning then shows signs of clearing.
5. You’ve got nothing better planned.
6. Although lots of small items are moving, a few larger items you’re keen to shift are still on the shelves. Remember, if there’s still an atmosphere of buying in the air, you’re more likely to sell those large items.
7. You’re still enjoying yourself.
8. Customers are still willing to pay near the marked price for your items.
9. You’ve got leftover sausages or hamburgers from your ancillary barbeque – in which case it might be worth moving the barbeque closer to the street. You’ll be surprised how the smeall will continue to attract customers!
10. You’ve still got the energy (if not, and all the above factors are occurring, try digging deep!)

Remember, if people are hanging around and they‘re still buying, try not to telegraph to them that you’re packing up. Nothing will drive customers out your gate, and to the garage sale down the street, quicker!

Instead, make yourself a cup of coffee and give the impression you’re happy to linger as long as you have customers.

Yard and garage sellers in the Michigan city of Walker had a win last week when the local council shelved a months-old proposal to regulate home-based sales.

Walker’s City Commission voted 6-1 to shelve the ordinance indefinitely after a vote to approve the ordinance failed 2-5. Commissioner Cyndy Stek cast the lone dissenting vote to shelve the regulation, because she favored throwing it out altogether.

The proposal had been reviewed twice by the Planning Commission before being sent to the overarching City Commission.

Mayor Rob VerHeulen said he did not support the ordinance, which would have restricted garage sales to three days each, no more than three times a year.

He favored at least four times per year and wanted an exemption for sales of produce, such as residents selling vegetables or flowers from their gardens.

“I have a hard time banning the fruit stand,” VerHeulen said.

Commissioner Chuck Deschaine, who also rejected the ordinance, said it could not be enforced without major problems for the building and police departments.

While the ordinance is effectively dead, it could come back to the commission for consideration if garage sales become a nuisance.

Need extra Christmas cash? Why not host a last minute garage sale?.

The catch? There’s only one more shopping weekend before Christmas.

Still, squeezing a last minute pre-Christmas sale in may well be worthwhile:

1. To help pay off that sagging credit card;
2. To take advantage of the last-minute pre-Christmas buying frenzy

If you do decide to host a garage sale this weekend, you could well be in a position to take advantage of the rush, because:

1. plenty of people will not have finished their shopping because day is still a good week away from this Saturday; and
2. many people are already on holidays, and so are looking for an excuse to get out and about; and
3. the week’s break between this coming weekend and Christmas will allow you plenty of time to clean up and get your own Christmas act together.

Remember not to delay your advertising, though. While garagesalesource.com is open for advertisements right up to the last minute, your local newspaper will have a cut-off date much earlier than this.

There’s nothing like a new year’s resolution to get you cracking on cleaning out your messy garage.

And while things may be a little on the chilly side in the good ol’ US of A at the moment, now’s the perfect time to start planning your 2006 garage sale.

Why wait for spring or summer, when garage sale competition is at its peak?

Why not gather all your old stuff, including those Christmas presents you received two of, tie a price tag on them, and throw your street’s first garage or yard sale of the year?

It probably goes without saying that if you live in a very cold part of the nation you’ll need to think about heating your sale – which means holding it indoors – that is, in a garage rather than a yard.

Regardless of this, there’s a whole host of items more likely to sell at a winter garage sale than at a spring or summer one – snow shoes and skis come to mind!

So rug up, and get stuck into it. A winter-wooly garage sale may be the best one you’ve ever had!

Instead of going it alone, why not pool advertising resources with your neighbors and host a street-wide yard sale?

This will, of course, take a little more organizing, especially the first time around, but if you make your street’s yard sale an annual event, it could become legendary throughout your town.

The main advantage of pooling resources is that you’ll be able to take out a larger advertisement in your local newspaper, buy more advertising signs, and even do a concerted letter box drop, thereby concentrating more visitors into your neck of the woods.

Things you’ll need to consider are:

• ensuring everyone who expresses an interest in the idea is kept in the loop – a temporary yard sale taskforce may be necessary here;
• ways you can minimize the impacts on neighbors who aren‘t interested in participating;
• appointing a single contact person the local authorities can touch base with if needs be;
• getting everyone’s financial contribution up front before you spend any money;
• giving the person who organizes the street sale this year a break the next year;
• to make the day as much a social day as a business day – that way the reputation of your neighborhood yard sale as a fun day out will spread; and
• what other pooling opportunities, other than advertising, exist – for instance, the more entrepreneurial of your neighbors may wish to get together to operate a children’s jumping castle, or a food stall.

Getting together with your neighbors will not only increase your yard sale’s exposure, but will inject a good deal of community spirit into your suburb!

Sounds like the title of a techno tune, doesn’t it.

Well, fortunately there’s nothing too technical in deciding whether to host a yard sale over a garage sale, or vice versa.

The first question to ask yourself of course is ‘do I have a garage or yard’?

Assuming you have one of the above, the next consideration is which of your yard or garage (or both) has the most space. If, for example, your garage is jam-packed with stuff you need to keep secure, best to use the yard and keep the garage under lock and key.

However, if your garage is full of stuff you don’t need, and which isn’t especially valuable, your big sale could be just the opportunity you need to tidy up!

Then, have a think about the ambience of your garage or your yard. If one is way more pleasant than the other, this may tip your decision, since people feel more comfortable purchasing when they’re in agreeable surroundings.

Finally, you’ll need to consider how much shelter your visitors, and your sale items, require. A garage of course has its own canopy, so you won’t need to mess around erecting tarpaulins to keep the sun or rain out. On the other hand, if the weather forecast is fine and moderate, your beautiful yard may well encourage buyers to linger in the sun.

The last thing you need at a yard sale is for one of your customers to do themselves an injury.

So, before you open your gates, it pays to have a first aid kit, and if possible a qualified first aid practitioner, handy.

But when it comes to safety, as ever, an ounce of prevention saves a pound of cure. So here’s a few tips to help you mensure your yard is nice and safe when your visitors come streaming through the gates.

A couple of hours before your sale you should check your yard to ensure:

1. there’s no low-lying tree branches that people or children can walk into.
2. all electrical cables or cords are concealed so there’s no possibility that your visitors (especially any children) can come in contact with a live lead.
3. there’s nothing lying on the ground (like kids’ toys) that people can trip over – especially in the main path from your street to the sale.
4. that any hot surfaces (such as a barbeque plate) are supervised by an adult at all times.
5. that, if you have a swimming pool, it has a child-proof lock and the gate is shut.
6. all your vehicles are locked and the park brakes are firmly on.
7. any animals you have are appropriately tethered and not able to reach your visitors.
8. that none of the advertising or stalls for your sale block drivers’ sight lines as they’re pulling up to your yard.
9. all your garden and power tools are securely locked away.
10. your house and garden is in good repair so that things like heavy tree fruits or loose eave panels are unlikely to fall on visitors’ heads.

Finally, you should personally conduct at least two checks of all the above while the sale is running, just to make sure that none of the conditions you checked at the start of the day have changed.

Sounds like a lot to consider, right? Well, if like most people, your house and yard are in good working order, you’ll be able to finish your safety audit very quickly.

If on the other hand your house or yard needs a safety upgrade, an upcoming yard sale is the perfect excuse to do it. Safety after all is imperative, not just for your visitors, but also for your family.

A local council in Dallas has seen the light, and slashed fines for infringements related to garage sale signs.

On Monday night, Plano City Council unanimously voted to reduce the range of garage sale sign fines by shrinking the maximum penalty from $2,000 to $500, and by moving sign regulations from the city’s zoning ordinance to its general code.

A summer enforcement push to control signs in median strips and other public areas drew a flood of complaints from garage sellers who received fines topping $500. The city handed out 179 tickets in less than two months before suspending the enforcement blitz in October.

Under the old regulations, which resulted from a local referendum 15 years ago, illegal temporary signs could attract a fine up to $2,000. The local garage sale committee asked the council to consider amending the ordinance to target chronic violators of sign rules, as well as those who do not remove sale signs promptly.

Another resident asked Plano council not to lose sight of the original intent of the 1990 referendum, when 63 percent of voters agreed that street clutter had gotten out of hand.
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The lessons for garage sale operators?

1. Make sure you know, and abide by, your local council’s sign rules – they’re generally quite reasonable; and.

2. Participate in any local debates on garage sale regulation so you can howl down draconian proposals at their first airing! .

Yep, yard selling isn’t all beer and skittles. There’s lots of cleaning and maintenance to be done even before you get to yard sale square one!

But if you think of your yard sale as a great way to clean up, both physically and financially, it will ease the burden of the jobs that need doing.

Of course you’ll need to make sure your yard is clean, tidy and above all safe. It’s probably best to do the cleaning and maintenance yourself – paying someone else to do it will just eat into your profits.

Fortunately, you don’t have to clean up all alone – get the kids to pitch in.

You might consider offering them a share of the profits as an incentive – not only for helping you keep the yard tidy, but for bringing any money-making ideas to your attention. Remember, children can be very creative, and giving them a stake in your sale will teach them valuable lessons they can apply throughout their lives.

Throughout the big day of the yard sale, place the kids on a roving commission to ‘clean as they go’. This will ensure there’s less of a mess to clean at the end of the day.

Still, no matter how much cleaning gets done throughout the day, be prepared for the possibility that at the end of the day your yard may still look like a bomb hit.

Take half an hour out by all means to relax and regroup, but resist the temptation to leave the tidying till the next day, week or month (!)

Take a deep breath and get stuck into the mess.

Remember, your yard sale has already cleared your home of all the old stuff you no longer need. Now is the time to press home the advantage and clean up big time!

Fear not, yard seller, outdoors areas can handle a lot of ‘broad-brush’ cleaning, and so are never as difficult to tidy as they seem at the outset.