House Clearances
Some people may find this idea distasteful, as generally speaking it involves cleaning up after the dead. In defence of the service offered, I have watched both of my parents deal with my grandparents・ effects after they died and realise how distressing this can be. For some there is no family, for others the family has moved away and even when there is close family it may be too distressing to clean up and dispose of personal effects.
The service offer is simply to remove and dispose of furniture, clothing, and other items. Naturally there are some items such as photographs and jewellery which should be returned to the family if found during this process. The way that you handle these personal items will affect your reputation and may lead to you getting additional jobs later on.
You will need access to a van, and sufficient storage to hold items while you work out how to dispose of them most effectively. You will also need at least one other person to help you carry larger items.
You may be asked to undertake partial clearances, only remove certain items that the family has no use for; you may not be trusted and could well have a family member or their representative present to check you only take the appropriate items. Put yourself in the family・s shoes and this is understandable, you are a stranger going through their recently deceased, loved one・s belongings. In other words you need to have tough skin to do this kind of work.
The range of items that you will need to find homes for is as diverse as everything you have in your own home, and then some. Initially you will think of many items as trash, or only good for the local charity shop which is fine as you will be doing someone else a service but as you develop your knowledge you will learn that most things have a value even as scrap.
Put together a basic term sheet that outlines what you will and won・t do; how you deal with personal items etc. It will make you look more professional and if you expand later on gives your staff a guideline on what is acceptable.
Having established your service, how will you go about finding work? We would
suggest the following approaches: -
Advertise
Work with funeral homes
Work with local ministries
Work with real estate agents
Network
This is a low-key business; people in general do not like to talk about death, or anything relating to it. You should place advertisements in the local newspaper, pre-booked next to the obituary columns as far in advance as you can afford. You should also take out an advertisement in the yellow pages and any other local directory listings. This is not as expensive as you might think and may be the primary route that your customers find you. Try to put something different in your advert, for example you may want to try and get an ISO standard accreditation so that you stand out from the other house clearers. Anything that makes you sound less fly-by night can make the difference.
Funeral homes are used to dealing with those who are upset and unable to deal with their bereavement. They will already have a list of people that can help the family, and will probably have one or two companies offering your service already on their books. Try to get to sit down with the owner and work out whether there is anything that you could do to improve your service such that you would be more attractive to them than their current recommendations, this might include your team wearing uniforms, or other service related matters. It will undoubtedly involve a finder・s fee.
Similarly Priests, Rabbis, Mullahs, etc are all used to dealing with the spiritual side of bereavement but have also to become adept at dealing with practical matters as part of their role in supporting the families. It is ok to call and arrange a meeting with these guys (or ladies) and explain what you do, it would be better of course if you met them at a service and better still if you regularly attend their services. This simply put is better in terms of building trust because when a member of the congregation needs your services the recommendation is stronger when you are part of their religious community. I am not suggesting a completely cynical approach here, simply pointing out the reality of how these kinds of recommendations work. If you choose to attend 3 different services each weekend the likelihood is that you are very religious, or soon will be.
Real estate agents get the absolute bottom of the pile cases. The bank sells the house on because no-one has taken on the mortgage, or the remote family sell it without ever clearing up. These fixer uppers are good investments for those prepared to put in the work, but a smart real estate agent knows that the better a place looks superficially the higher the value it will receive, You will also get more cases here that are not resulting from deaths, there are many other reasons why a home may be abandoned, some leaving bigger cleaning up jobs than others.
Networking with this kind of business is tricky, as you need to approach it sensitively. I would wait for people to ask what I do, and make sure that I always give them a business card. Being yourself is fine; remember that the best sales people always say they sell themselves before they ever sell their company or their product. You don・t need to regale them with tales of funny work related situations; in fact it would be better if you don・t for fear of looking unprofessional.
Given that you are essentially creating stock from each house clearance it may seem strange that I have written in this section today. You will however need packing boxes, trash bags, paper for wrapping valuables and generally the same accoutrements as your average removals company. The more care you take packing the items that you move, the more you are likely to receive for them when you sell them on.
You can start by buying your basic supplies from a cash and carry, later on you will want to find local suppliers who will give you discounts for buying in bulk. You will get through a lot of tape and boxes once you build a steady flow of customers.
Try to keep a system, so that you know where each kind of item was packed and when you unpack keep similar items together.
Deal with customers sensitively and professionally and you will get referrals.
You can sell many items online using Ebay and other online auctions, or simply pass the items on to other retailers. For example many student areas have shops selling second hand furniture, cookers etc.
There is a market for recycled paper, clothing etc. Don・t throw anything away without understanding its value.