Which to choose car boot sales, house clearance ? What is the best solution to clear out your house ?
Car boot sale, house clearance which is the best solution to clear out your house, sell your items, your trinkets and your furniture ? How to organize a house clearance, a car boot sale ?
Following an inheritance, a move to a retirement home or for another reason, you want to sell your furniture and belongings. It’s urgent. You have contacted professionals for the complete clearance of your dwelling.
Any information ? We are located at 14810 Merville Franceville Plage dans le Calvados.
You find that the cost of the service to clear out is too high. Or for various reasons, you prefer to handle the sale of the items, the movable goods yourself. It’s your choice. Indeed, you have three possibilities to clear your house.
- Firstly, the house clearance. At your home, you will display for potential buyers everything you have to sell.
- Secondly, the car boot sale, or neighborhood flea market. The word brocante is used incorrectly. It is reserved for professional fairs such as the one in Chatou . But it has entered common usage.
- Thirdly, sell your furniture and items on leboncoin.fr. It’s also an option. We will not elaborate on it because it is simple to carry out.
We will examine point by point the two options Car boot sale and house clearance highlighting the advantages and the disadvantages.
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Making the distinction between the car boot sale and the house clearance
First of all what is a car boot sale ?
The car boot sale also called flea market, brocante, clearance sale, swap meets and flea markets, attic fair, flea fair, rummage sale, bric-à-brac, flea markets .. is a gathering of stalls in the street and also in village halls where private non-professional exhibitors display the objects they no longer want. The purpose being to sell everything to visitors, to bargain-hunters at this event. The car boot sale is generally always organized through an association.
What is a house clearance ?
A house clearance consists of selling objects, furniture in the very place where all the trinkets are stored. Visitors, buyers will enter your home to make a purchase. The house clearance is always organized by a private individual.
What is leboncoin.fr ?
Leboncoin.fr is a start-up, a website where it is possible to sell what you no longer need. Provided that the item is in good condition or restored. Open an account. Take photos of the items you want to part with. Display a price. And you receive either an email or a phone call from the potential buyer. It’s simple to carry out. The buyer is local. He will come to your home to pick up the sold item. If the buyer is not local, you must pack it for shipping.
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How to organize a car boot sale or a house clearance ?
In broad terms, we will explain how to organize a car boot sale, a house clearance ? You will appreciate it, because there is nothing simpler.
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How to get organized to hold a car boot sale ?
A car boot sale is organized by the town hall, an association. You must register.
The car boot sale is in principle reserved for private individuals. Some professionals may be found there. As the law indicates, it is a question of a “sale by unpacking.” You can sell everything there: video games, clothing, toys during the Christmas period, old books, old records, comic books, everything for home decoration.. At prices defying all competition ranging from 1 to 5 euros. But beware, there are items that are prohibited from sale in all car boot sales.
Basic rules to succeed with your car boot sale
- First of all, check on https://brocabrac.fr/ the calendar of car boot sales, flea markets.
- First you must register. There are car boot sales everywhere, choose the one closest to your home.
- Choose well what you want to sell: books, items, clothing, take photos of bulky items, ( you will not take them.. )
- Get organized a few days before, provide cardboard boxes for packing, tables to place the items if they are not provided.
- Know how to get up early, ( 5 a.m. ) so as not to be disturbed by the other exhibitors.
- Having an attractive stall is not to be neglected. Think linear meters. It is better to have a long stall, rather than deep.
- In short, if you want to sell, you need low prices and above all not be allergic to bargaining.
- The law governs car boot sales. First of all, it is important to find out about the regulations.
- And also, are you insured ?
Unlike a house clearance, there will be more potential customers who will see what you are selling. But you must transport the merchandise in your car or trailer.
Some points to know about car boot sale legislation
The participants authorized to take part in car boot sales are:
- The persons who organize the car boot sale association or town hall must keep a register allowing the identification of the sellers, private individuals or antique dealers.
- All private individuals selling exclusively personal and used items.
- Private individuals must not participate in more than 2 car boot sales per year.
- Professionals in the second-hand trade must be declared. They are obliged to be in possession of a police book.
Organize your house clearance
First of all, you must request authorization from your town hall.
The house clearance is governed by a legal text. In other words, it is strictly regulated.
Therefore, you must obligatorily make a prior declaration of sale by unpacking, about fifteen days before the scheduled date of your house clearance. You download on the site www.service-public.fr the Cerfa form n°13939*01. With your declaration, you justify your identity. Furthermore, if you plan to unpack on the sidewalk which is public domain, you must have the temporary occupation authorization of the public domain. Authorization which you request in parallel with your prior declaration. The law stipulates that you cannot organize two house clearances per year spaced by two months.
How to make your house clearance known ?
It’s a whole organization. 15 days before your house clearance, visit the shopkeepers in your neighborhood and leave them a nice poster. Warn your neighbors, your friends so they can pass on the message. There are sites dedicated to this such as vide-maisons.org, leboncoin.fr where you can post announcements. Use social networks like Facebook, twitter. Print small posters and play postman in your neighborhood, mailboxes and car windshields. Think about signage in front of your home and on main streets. In our opinion, you should make yourself visually noticeable.
Unlike the car boot sale, there will be fewer potential customers who will see what you are selling. But the advantage is not having to transport the objects you want to sell.
How not to be overrun at home ?
If the house must be emptied of all its contents, due to inheritance or moving, holding a house clearance is accepting to be overrun by strangers who will enter your home. If you only have a few items or a few pieces of furniture organize the house clearance in the garage, in a room of the house or outside in the garden.
What commercial strategy to sell well ?
You can present the items by themes. Do not mix, for example, crockery with books. You must put on each item the price you want in a visible way with bright colors. Estimating the value of the item, it’s important not to be taken advantage of. Do not be too expensive however and remain open to negotiation. Fans of car boot sales or house clearances like that everything is negotiable. It’s a game that must be win-win.
Summary of the house clearance
In short, here in a few words is what a house clearance can look like. But as I said in a previous article it is not ideal if you want to completely empty the house. Indeed, you are not a professional so you do not know the value of what you are selling. It should be emphasized that the best pieces will go immediately as soon as the public opens. The trendy antique and brocante items to hunt right now will go and you will be left with the rest. You wanted to save on a house clearance carried out by a professional.
You will still have to clear the rest of the house. And since the best trinkets that could have helped lower the price of a professional house clearance have gone at low prices. Consequently, the professional’s service will be more expensive. Moreover: what sells well, generally in a house clearance, represents no volume. In other words, it is the volume that the second‑hand dealer charges for to completely clear your house.