“One man’s trash,” the old adage goes, “is another man’s treasure.”
Putting those two parties together is a big part of what Louisville’s Legacy Home & Estate Services does.
The company and its co-owners, principal broker Steve Couch and realtor/auctioneer David Wilson, are in the business of taking the past and moving it into the present. They liquidate estates, auction items online or in person, prepare homes for resale and even sell the homes.
And they find new homes for old stuff during their clients’ periods of transition.
That, Wilson explained, can require a level of empathy and finesse.
“It’s stressful because you’re dealing with people that are going through a change-of-life situation where mom and dad have died. They’re not meeting us at their best, you know what I mean? So you’ve had a death, a downsize, a divorce, something’s happened to the point where you need to liquidate your stuff. And when they meet us, they’re in a tough spot.”
And that’s where the human touch comes in.
“One, we’re lighthearted,” Wilson said. “We’re empathetic, which is a big key to this industry. You’re not going to survive if you have no empathy. And we’re trying to make this area a better place by being here and taking care of people. We’re trying to take the burden off of them and adding it to us.”
Taking burdens off clients can be very rewarding work, Wilson said. Finding new homes for the components of estates, whether it’s through for-profit auctions or working with charities, can also be satisfying.
That’s not to say there aren’t speed bumps along the way.
In the era of programs such as “Antique Roadshow,” for instance, clients can sometimes overestimate the value of their possessions or mom and dad’s stuff.
“There are people with expectations that stuff is going to be worth millions of dollars, when they’re not,” Wilson said. “And that’s when you have to be honest with people on what’s good and what isn’t. … You’re going to be disappointed in some items for how low they sold. But you’re going to be blown away by how high certain other things go.”
One man’s trash …
“We had one kid, I saw them throwing out all of these ‘Star Wars’ toy boxes. And I said, ‘Oh, hey, please stop.’ He’s like, ‘Why?’ and I told him, ‘“Star Wars” boxes are worth a fortune.’ He said, ‘But there’s no toy in them.’ And I explained to him, ‘Somebody’s got to buy the box and match it up with the old toy. The box is the harder part to find.’ We did over $10,000 in boxes.”
The value of other unforeseen items, once authenticated, are less surprising but just as welcome.
“We were asked to just come out and liquidate a house,” Wilson recalled. “She didn’t care what we got, she just wanted it gone. Her husband had died. She wanted to move on from it. And she says, ‘I don’t care what it goes for, just get rid of it, he’s a collector of all this junk. She was so focused on all the furniture. … We started going through the items: letters from George Washington, letters from Abe Lincoln, letters … I mean, we had to go through and verify and authenticate all of this artwork.”
Wilson turned to an expert for this estate.
“We work with Graydon Sykes, from ‘Antiques Roadshow,’” he said. “He and I are buddies, and so we’ll sling things his way and ask, ‘Hey, what do you think of this?’ And we were just blown away with how much high-quality art, you know, Picassos. You had all the top names. And they were all authentic. He was quietly collecting all these items. And she was going to give us a few thousand bucks to clean it out.”
The upshot?
“We ended up writing her checks in the tens of thousands for what we sold it for.”
Other times, though, the surprises are not as pleasant.
“We’ve dealt with having to work with the police over stolen art before,” Wilson said. “And we lose money on stuff like trying to do the right thing, you know what I mean? It’s just like we do our research. We make sure that these people have a right to sell these items. And everything’s on the up and up. We’re not dealing with pawn shops. We want to deal with families.
Every picture tells a story, and every estate presents a new set of mysteries, surprises, hardships and rewards.
“One thing that has had more value than I was expecting has always been glassware, like some glassware,” Wilson said. “I usually look at most glassware as garbage. And then when you look at certain pieces now, there are some pieces, like Fenton, like classic Fenton has some value. Some historical bottles from Louisville and other areas like we just sold have value. We did a wholesale for painted ponies nobody wanted. I couldn’t imagine there was a human being alive that would want to paint a pony. And then we found a Facebook group of painted pony fanatics and they bought all of them, and they bought them at a high premium. The client couldn’t believe how much money we got them.”
Some collectibles, for instance, are not as collectible as others.
“Precious Moments, a lot of our bidder base is predominantly women, and so the women on our website still collect these items. So in the 50-to-75-years-old range, they love it, so they still buy it,” Wilson said. “But the Beanie Babies? No, you can’t get rid of them.”
Flood or famine, though, if one does the research, the market will always provide guidance.
“You have to stay with trends, with us doing this on a day-to-day basis. And I’ll be honest with you, if you put something in front of 10,000 people online, you’re going to get a true value. Like if I put a ring up for a dollar, they’re going to sit there and say, ‘Oh, OK, well, I love this ring.’ They’ll tell you and set the value for you, so whatever is trending is based off of what these 10,000 people like. And if these 10,000 people say, ‘Hey, this ring is worth $5,000, it’s worth $5,000.”
But regardless of whether an item is a bonanza or a bust, the key is to find new homes for the contents of an estate, whether that means commanding a big price at auction or taking it to a charitable organization to get it to someone who needs it.
“There’s always a home,” Wilson says. “We’re trying to keep things out of the landfill.”
The 2nd Annual Chamber of St. Matthews Golf Scramble will be held on July 19 at Eagle Creek Golf Course, 2820 KY-53 in La Grange. There will be a shotgun start around 9 a.m.
This year’s scramble will feature a hole-in-one contest and, new this year – a golf ball cannon that will help shoot the ball closer to the hole. In addition, The Chamber will sell mulligans and Luck Be A Lady, where you can buy an opportunity to hit from the lady’s tee. Plus, the beer cart sponsored by KHIT Consulting will be making its rounds during the scramble.
The scramble is a fundraiser to help the Chamber start our new Foundation, which will help fund scholarships for working adults to return to college and to help small businesses with grants.
The Chamber is looking for hole sponsors, sponsors and companies to donate items for the goodie bags. The cost is $600 for a foursome. A single registration, where we will pair you up with other players, is $150. This includes a round of golf, two carts, and lunch.
“We are excited for this year’s scramble and we are even more excited that it is a fundraiser to help with the start-up costs for our new Chamber foundation,” said Josh Suiter, The Chamber of St. Matthews CEO. “We can’t wait to see you all on the green and to see which team wins this year.”
