Everything But The House (EBTH)

Cincinnati-based Everything But The House (EBTH) combines the services of a local estate agent with an online auction site for people who are downsizing, selling off inherited household items, or paring down a collection.

Would-be sellers can request a consultation online and get a professional on-site assessment to evaluate their items for sale potential. If they decide to use the EBTH service, the company’s professional photographers and catalogers create high-quality images and descriptions of each item. The estate auction then runs on the EBTH website for 7 days. After the sale closes, EBTH ships items to winning bidders and delivers an item list and a check, minus sale fees, to the sellers within 30 days.

EBTH also handles marketing and promotion of individual items with popular appeal. The site has a clean, high-end retail look and features details about some of the estates from which the items come. For example, at this writing, the top spot on the EBTH homepage is a mini-biography of a Cincinnati Zoo cheetah conservationist and her late husband, including tales of their work in Namibia, along with a collection of cheetah-themed memorabilia for sale.

As with mass-market auction site eBay, items range from the rarified to the everyday: a life-size bronze lion statue, a vintage Porsche 944 coupe, tableware, comic books, toys, and designer handbags. There’s also quite a bit of furniture and home décor on the site.

Here’s our review of EBTH. We’d love to hear from you! Share your opinion by writing a review.

Pros:

EBTH says it can generate 3 to 5 times more revenue by selling online to a worldwide audience than by holding local, in-person estate sales. EBTH employees handle sorting, photography, product descriptions, creating the online auction listings, promoting the sale, and shipping sold items, which can save sellers considerable time. In addition, sellers don’t need to open their homes to the public during the sale, as happens with in-home estate sales. Everything But The House is accredited by the Better Business Bureau and has an A+ rating with the organization as of March 2016.

Cons:

EBTH only operates in 19 metro areas nationwide as of this writing, primarily in the eastern half of the continental US plus a few Texas cities, Denver, and Los Angeles.

Fine print:

The site’s fine print centers on terms for auction bidders and buyers. It notifies bidders that they’ll have to pay state sales tax where applicable and that they can pick up local items rather than pay for shipping if they prefer to do so.

Cost:

Initial consultations are free for prospective sellers. Everything But the House doesn’t list its sale fees on the site, but according to a Cincinnati Enquirer feature, the company charges 35% of the total sale proceeds.

Best for…

Homeowners who are ready to downsize; adult children who want to save time and maximize proceeds from an estate; collectors who are ready to sell all or part of an art, furniture, or other type of collection and prefer not to handle the sale themselves.

Ready to start your sale? Visit EBTH.com today.