Episode Notes

One of the responsibilities of an Estate Sale Business is safeguarding the personal property you’re tasked with selling.

This is the Estate Sale Business Podcast: Your Guide to a More Successful, Sustainable, and Profitable Estate Sale Management Business.

This is Episode 002, entitled: “Protecting Property: Using a Video Surveillance System to Guard Against Theft, Damage, and Destruction of Estate Sale Property”

In this episode, we cover one of the most effective approaches to security for the personal property you're responsible for at each estate sale.

Safeguarding property before and during an estate sale can be uniquely challenging. And you can’t ignore it. Losses can be costly, both from missed sales and potential liability.

Alert staff during the sale can help prevent accidents and discourage pilferage. But accidents and theft still occur. And what happens during the leadup to the sale? That time when you leave at night and there’s no one in the home to prevent loss?

These days, many estate sale management firms are relying on a surveillance video system to help them keep an eye on things. Having a video surveillance system at a sale location can prove very useful. Especially so, if the location will be vacant in the days leading up to the sale while you’re preparing the property.

Here are some of the issues you face:

Foremost is actual criminal activity. During a sale, small items are often stolen. When the site is crowded with people, it’s not easy to monitor every location and every piece.

While some theft on sale days may be crimes of opportunity, professional thieves are also responsible. Professionals often work as a team, with one person distracting your staff while another commits the theft.

But it’s presale when the professionals are most likely to strike. Thieves can gain entrance to a house that’s unoccupied and easily walk away with the highest valued property. They may have already reviewed what’s available by visiting the popular estate advertising sites.

And unfortunately, presale is also when employee theft is most likely. You want to trust those you hire, but many times you need extra help. If you have casual employees working to prepare a sale, it can be difficult to prevent the theft. When things get so hectic and busy, it’s impossible to be watch everything.

So the number one property loss challenge you have to guard against is theft.

Not far behind is breakage. Items can be broken during the sale when it’s most crowded. And it can also happen during presale prep. In both situations, every item is likely to be touched by at least one set of hands and often by many. Whether it’s a clumsy customer or a tired employee, breakage happens.

The challenge is significant. Anything you can do to prevent theft and breakage will help stem losses that, ultimately, come out of your pocket.

In this episode, you'll hear how a video surveillance system can help with this problem. You'll get guidance on what type of system is best and what systems to avoid.

The Estate Sale Business Podcast and our website are dedicated to serving estate sale business owners and managers. Our goal is to provide you with the how-to information and best-practice guidance that can help your business thrive. Our website address is EstateSaleBiz.com. Your podcast host is Ronald Andrew-Murphy.

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