Deceased Estate Cleanout Cost NSW 2026 - Get Free Quotes

Estate Cleanout Costs in NSW

A small unit with modest contents costs $800 to $1,500 to clear entirely, a three bedroom house $1,500 to $2,500 and a larger property $2,500 to $4,000. Where decades of belongings have accumulated the figure reaches $3,500 to $6,000. General clearance is priced at rubbish removal costs. Contents volume rather than floor area sets the price. An estimate given without seeing contents is not a firm price.

Two properties of the same nominal size can differ by thousands. A unit occupied for five years and a unit occupied for forty hold entirely different volumes, and it is what is inside rather than the number of bedrooms that a quote is actually built on. How long somebody lived there predicts volume better than size does. A long occupancy fills every cupboard in the house. A single wardrobe can hold what takes a crew an hour to sort and pack. A will kept somewhere sensible is the exception rather than the rule.

Most operators will quote from photographs before ever attending. Sending images of each room, the garage, the shed and any storage areas usually produces a workable estimate, and a site visit confirms it rather than starting the conversation. Photographs give an operator a workable estimate. A site visit confirms the figure rather than beginning it. Include the roof space and under the house if either has been used for storage. Those are the areas people forget when describing a property.

What to Do First

Search for the documents before anything else happens at all. Wills, title deeds, insurance policies, share certificates, bank statements, superannuation records and funeral plans turn up in drawers, inside books, at the back of wardrobes and in filing boxes rather than anywhere obvious. Finding the documents comes before everything else. Nothing is recoverable once a truck has left. A mug somebody used every morning matters more than the dining suite.

Photograph every room in the house before anything moves. A set of images taken on a phone takes twenty minutes and gives you a record of what was there, which matters both for the estate and for family members who cannot attend in person. Photographing a house takes about twenty minutes. They answer questions that arise months later. Wide shots of each room plus close ups of anything notable is enough. Envelopes taped behind drawers are common enough to be worth checking.

Take what matters to you personally before any sorting begins. Items with meaning rather than value are the ones people regret losing, and identifying them early removes the risk of something being disposed of by somebody who did not know. Sentimental items are the real loss. Remove them before anybody else attends. A chipped mug somebody remembers being used every morning is worth more to a family than the furniture. Value and meaning rarely overlap here.

Check the coat pockets, the tins and even the freezer. Cash, jewellery and documents turn up in coat pockets, biscuit tins, the backs of picture frames and occasionally the freezer, particularly with people who lived through periods when banks were not trusted. Older generations frequently hid things deliberately. Check the unlikely places carefully before clearing. Basic removal is the cheapest way to lose something irreplaceable.

Almost nothing needs deciding this week. Where probate applies the estate cannot be distributed until it is granted, so the pressure people feel to clear a property quickly is usually self imposed or coming from a real estate agent rather than from any legal requirement. The clock people feel is rarely a real one. Rushing is how things get lost. Agents sometimes push for a fast clearance to get a property to market. Carpets, windows, the oven and bathrooms all need attention afterwards.

Ask the solicitor before disposing of anything substantial at all. Where an estate is being administered, the executor has obligations about identifying and preserving assets, and a conversation costs nothing against the alternative. Hoarding situations are quoted at hoarder cleanout costs. A quick call settles most questions. A solicitor administering the estate will usually have a view on what should be preserved. That phone call takes five minutes.

Service Levels

Basic removal at $600 to $1,200 clears the property and nothing more. Everything goes, no sorting happens and nobody separates the valuable from the worthless, which suits a property where the family has already been through it thoroughly. Basic removal involves no sorting at all. It suits a property already sorted through. A three bedroom house typically fills three to five truck loads.

A standard cleanout includes room by room clearing with basic sorting throughout. The crew separates obvious valuables, documents and items you have flagged, removes the rest and leaves the property empty, which is what most families actually need. Standard service covers the great majority of situations. Flagged items get set aside rather than removed. Standard service is what most operators mean when they quote an estate clearance. Disposal fees can exceed the labour on some properties.

A full service adds proper sorting, donation coordination and cleaning. Items are categorised for keeping, donating, selling or disposal, charities are arranged and the property is left clean rather than merely empty, and that sits at the upper end of each band. A full service costs more and does considerably more. It suits a family managing things from a distance. A full service costs more because somebody is making decisions rather than lifting. That judgement is the expensive part.

A deep clean afterwards costs $300 to $800 as an add on. An empty property that has been occupied for decades needs more than a wipe down, particularly where preparing for sale, and that work is quoted separately from the clearance. Post renovation work sits at post renovation cleanup costs. Cleaning is quoted separately from clearing.

Garden and outdoor clearance is its own line at $400 to $1,200. Sheds, garages, garden accumulations and green waste all take separate handling, and a property with a well used shed can hold as much volume as the house. Green waste is quoted at green waste removal costs. A well used shed holds more than people expect. A garden left for months during an illness takes real work to bring back.

Partial clearance is available and is frequently the sensible option. Clearing the bulk while leaving specific rooms untouched lets a family work through the difficult areas at their own pace, and most operators will work to that instruction. Garage work is priced at garage cleanout costs. Partial clearance is an entirely normal request. Leaving a bedroom or a study untouched costs nothing extra on most quotes. It gives the family somewhere to work through slowly.

What Affects the Quote

Contents volume is by far the single largest factor. Operators think in truck loads rather than square metres, and a heavily furnished three bedroom house can exceed a sparse four bedroom one comfortably. Contents volume drives every estate quote. Truck loads are the working unit of measure.

Access changes the labour hours more than anything else does. A ground floor property with a driveway is straightforward, while a third floor unit without a lift means every item is carried down stairs, which can double the hours on the same volume. Stairs multiply the labour hours considerably. Lift access changes the arithmetic entirely. Two flights of stairs on a full house can add a day to the job.

Disposal costs vary with what is being removed. Green waste, general waste, electronic waste and mattresses all have different tip fees, and a property heavy in any one category shifts the disposal component. Tip fees appear at tip fee costs. Disposal is a genuine line item rather than overhead. A property heavy in green waste and e waste can carry more in disposal fees than in labour. The mix matters as much as the volume.

Electronic waste needs separate handling and cannot go to landfill at all. Televisions, computers, printers and appliances all require dedicated recycling, and an estate accumulated over decades usually holds several. Old electronics simply cannot go to landfill. A house occupied for forty years frequently holds three or four old televisions alone. Each one carries a recycling fee.

Mattresses and large appliances each carry their own fees. Each mattress attracts a disposal charge and whitegoods need separate handling, both of which appear as line items rather than being absorbed into a general figure. Appliance removal is priced at appliance removal costs. Each mattress carries a disposal fee.

Timing affects both the price and the availability. A clearance booked with notice costs less than one needed within days, and same day work carries a premium as it does in every trade. Same day service appears at same day rubbish removal costs. Giving notice reduces the overall cost. Booking a fortnight ahead usually gets you the standard rate and your preferred day.

Valuables and Documents

A reputable operator sets aside anything that looks valuable rather than making a judgement about it. Jewellery, coins, documents, photographs and anything that appears personal should be put to one side for the family, and that practice is the mark of somebody who does this work properly. A reputable operator sets valuables aside. That single practice distinguishes the professionals. A crew that finds a bank passbook and puts it on the kitchen bench is doing the job correctly. One that does not is a problem.

Valuation is an entirely separate service from clearance. Where an estate may hold antiques, artwork, collectibles or jewellery of consequence, a valuer should attend before anything is removed, and that is a specialist rather than a clearance operator. Arrange any valuation before the clearance. The two are entirely different professions.

Photographs and personal papers deserve far more care than furniture. Family photographs, letters and personal records are irreplaceable in a way that furniture never is, and boxing them for the family to go through later is far better than deciding on the day. Family photographs and letters are genuinely irreplaceable. Box them rather than sorting under pressure. Photographs in particular are worth boxing wholesale and sorting later.

Firearms, ammunition and other regulated items have their own requirements. A licensed firearm in an estate must be dealt with through the police rather than by any contractor, and the same applies to certain other regulated items. Never let a contractor remove firearms. The police handle anything of that kind specifically. The police will advise on the correct process for a firearm in an estate. That call is straightforward and should be made early.

Medications and medical equipment both need appropriate disposal. Prescription medicines should go to a pharmacy for safe disposal rather than to landfill, and sharps have specific requirements again. Health matters are administered by NSW Health. Return unwanted medicines to a pharmacy.

Keep a simple record of what actually left the property. A list or a set of photographs showing what was disposed of, donated or sold protects the executor and answers the questions beneficiaries ask months later. Consumer protections are administered by the ACCC. A simple record protects everybody involved. A phone album from the day works perfectly well as a record.

How the Process Works

Most operators begin with either a walkthrough or a set of photographs. That assessment establishes the volume, the access, the disposal mix and any items needing special handling, and it is what a firm quote is built from. An assessment precedes any firm quote. Photographs are usually enough to start. A walkthrough also lets an operator flag anything that will need special handling. Better to know that before the day than during it.

A clearance typically takes one to three days depending on the size. A unit can be done in a day, a family home usually takes two, and a heavily accumulated property longer again, and knowing that helps with planning around it. Most clearances take somewhere between one and three days. Larger properties need more time again.

You do not need to be present for the whole of the job. Many families find attending the start and the end easier than watching the middle, and a good operator will work to whatever arrangement suits you. You need not be present throughout the job. Many families find that arrangement easier. Some people find it easier to be entirely absent and that is reasonable too.

Flagged items are the mechanism that actually prevents mistakes. Marking rooms, cupboards or specific pieces with tape or notes tells the crew exactly what stays, and it is far more reliable than a verbal instruction on the morning. Flag items physically rather than verbally. Tape and written notes prevent misunderstandings. A note on a wardrobe door survives a change of crew where a verbal instruction does not. Tape is more reliable than memory.

Furniture worth keeping can be moved out rather than removed. Where family members want particular pieces, arranging that separately before the clearance is simpler than trying to redirect items on the day. Furniture removal is quoted at furniture removal costs. Arrange anything being kept well beforehand.

The property is usually left broom clean rather than properly deep cleaned. Clearance removes the contents and sweeps through, while preparing a property for sale or lease needs the separate clean quoted at $300 to $800. Broom clean is the standard finish on a clearance. Deep cleaning is a separate add on. Broom clean means swept and empty rather than presentable.

Donation and Recycling

A good proportion of any estate can be donated rather than dumped. Furniture in reasonable condition, clothing, books, kitchenware and linen all find homes through charities, and most families prefer that outcome to landfill. Donation beats landfill for anything still usable. Most families much prefer that outcome. A house cleared into landfill entirely sits badly with most families afterwards. Diverting what can be used matters more than the money.

Charities have become considerably more selective about what they accept. Items must be clean, functional and current, and a charity that has to dispose of unusable donations bears that cost itself, which is why they decline more than they once did. Charities now decline more than they once accepted. Condition largely determines what gets accepted.

Some operators handle the donation coordination as part of a full service. Sorting usable items, arranging collection and delivering to charities takes time, and it is one of the things that separates a full service from a basic removal. Recycling options appear at rubbish removal recycling options. Coordinating donations takes real time and effort. A full service operator usually has established relationships with local charities.

Recycling diverts a meaningful share of whatever remains. Metal, cardboard, timber, e waste and green waste all have recycling streams, and an operator with proper disposal practices sends considerably less to landfill than one without. Ask an operator about their disposal practices. Sorting streams properly takes longer than tipping everything into one truck. Operators who do it are choosing to.

Selling items of genuine value is worth considering separately. Where an estate holds furniture, collectibles or equipment with genuine resale value, an auction house or dealer may recover more than the clearance costs. Hard rubbish is priced at hard rubbish collection costs. Resale sometimes covers the clearance cost entirely. An auction house will assess whether a lot is worth handling before committing. That initial assessment is usually free.

Council collection can handle some of the bulk at no cost at all. Most councils offer scheduled hard waste collection, and where timing allows, using it for larger items reduces what a paid operator has to remove. Council collection is free where the timing suits you. Council schedules rarely match your own timing.

The Executor's Position

An executor carries obligations that go well beyond clearing a property. Identifying and preserving estate assets, paying debts and distributing according to the will are all duties, and disposing of assets before establishing what they are creates difficulty. An executor carries genuine preservation duties. Establish what the assets are before disposing of anything. An executor acting reasonably and keeping records is in a strong position.

Where probate is required nothing can be distributed until it is granted. That process takes weeks to months depending on complexity, and the property generally cannot be sold or the estate divided in the meantime, which removes any urgency about the clearance. Probate takes anywhere from weeks to months. Distribution waits until the grant issues. Simple estates move faster than contested ones, though even a straightforward grant takes time. Nothing about the property is urgent during that period.

The cost of the cleanout is generally an estate expense. Reasonable costs of administering an estate, including clearing and preparing a property, are usually payable from the estate rather than personally by the executor, though confirming that with the solicitor is worth doing. Confirm the position with the solicitor first. Keeping the invoice and a note of what it covered is enough for most purposes. Solicitors ask for it rather than for detail.

Beneficiaries are entitled to ask what happened to particular things. An executor who kept photographs and a simple record can answer those questions easily, while one who cannot creates suspicion where none is warranted. Good records prevent entirely avoidable disputes. Beneficiaries do ask about it afterwards.

Where the will names specific items, those need identifying first of all. A bequest of a particular piece of jewellery or furniture cannot be honoured if it has already gone in a truck, and reading the will before clearing is the obvious precaution. Read the will properly before clearing anything. Any specific bequest must be preserved. Specific bequests are usually listed clearly rather than buried in the document.

Disagreement among beneficiaries is common enough to be worth anticipating. Where family members hold different views about what should be kept, documenting decisions and involving everybody in the process reduces the friction considerably. Fair trading matters are administered by NSW Fair Trading. Document the decisions as you go along. Involving everybody early costs time and saves considerably more later. Most disputes are about process rather than about objects.

Doing the clearance yourself is entirely possible and worth thinking through honestly. A skip bin and a few weekends costs considerably less than a professional clearance, though it takes far longer than people estimate and puts family members through the emotional work repeatedly rather than once. Skip hire is quoted at skip bin hire costs. Weekends accumulate faster than you expect. Only you can judge which cost matters more.

A middle approach works well for many families. Sorting and removing what matters yourself over a couple of weekends, then having an operator clear the remainder, combines the control of doing it personally with the speed of professional help. That combination suits most families rather well. Sort first and let somebody else clear. The volume left is what gets quoted.

Physical safety is worth mentioning because people underestimate it. Lifting furniture down stairs, moving appliances and handling accumulated boxes causes injuries every year, and a family working alone through a full house is doing genuinely demanding physical work. Workplace safety is administered by SafeWork NSW. Lifting injuries are common on these jobs. Professional crews carry the right equipment.

Working with Family

Let family take what matters before the clearance begins. A weekend where family members can go through the house and identify what they want avoids the resentment that follows somebody discovering a piece has gone. Let everybody attend the property first. Resentment reliably follows a unilateral decision.

Distance makes participation harder and photographs help considerably. Family members interstate or overseas can review images and flag items remotely, which includes them in a process they otherwise miss entirely. Photographs include people at a distance. Family at a distance can still participate. Video calls work well for walking somebody through a room in real time.

Disagreements about specific items are best resolved well before the day. Two people wanting the same piece is a conversation to have in advance rather than in front of a crew waiting to load a truck. Settle any disputes before the crew arrives. The day itself is a very poor time for it. A crew standing idle while a family argues is an expensive and unpleasant situation. It is entirely avoidable with a conversation.

Some family members will not want to be there at all, and that is reasonable. Clearing a parent's house is genuinely difficult, and somebody who declines to attend is not being unhelpful so much as protecting themselves. Attendance should never be treated as compulsory. Clearing a family home is genuinely hard.

Professional help exists precisely so that families do not have to do this alone. Handing the volume to somebody who does this work regularly is not a failure of duty, and most people find it considerably easier than they expected. Engaging professional help is not a failure of duty. Most people find it considerably easier. Operators who do this work regularly have seen every situation before.

Take longer than you think you need to wherever you can. The families who report the fewest regrets are those who worked through a property over weeks rather than clearing it in a weekend, and where the property is not costing anything to hold, there is no reason to hurry. Slower is generally better than faster here. Regret tends to follow a hurried clearance. A property held outright and costing nothing to keep gives you months rather than weeks. Use that time if you have it.

A rented property brings a deadline that an owned one does not. Where the deceased was a tenant, rent continues until the tenancy ends, and the executor or next of kin needs to deal with the agent early rather than discovering weeks of arrears later. A rented property carries a genuine deadline. Contact the agent within the first week. Tenancy law provides a process for ending it.

Aged care and retirement village units follow their own arrangements. Many carry ongoing fees until the unit is cleared and handed back, and some operators have specific requirements about how and when that happens, so reading the agreement matters. Village agreements set their own timeframes. Ongoing fees frequently continue until handover. The agreement sets out what applies on handover.

Storage units and garages elsewhere are easy to forget entirely. A rented storage unit continues charging, and a lock up garage or a caravan stored at another address may hold as much as a spare room. Check whether storage is held somewhere else. A rented unit keeps charging regardless of circumstances. Bank statements and spare keys usually reveal them.

Difficult Circumstances

Some properties need specialist attention before a standard clearance can begin. Where a death was not discovered immediately, or where conditions inside pose a genuine health risk, the work becomes a biohazard remediation job requiring specific training, equipment and disposal rather than a clearance crew. Specialist remediation has to precede any clearance. That work is a separate trade entirely. Ask an operator directly whether they handle it.

Hoarding situations sit between the two and are more common than people realise. A property filled to capacity takes far longer to work through, carries genuine safety risks around stacking and floor loading, and frequently conceals items of value among the volume. Those situations carry their own pricing entirely. Sorting time dominates the quote in those cases. Volume alone understates the work involved.

Pest and vermin problems need addressing before the clearance rather than after. A property that has been vacant for months can develop issues that a clearance crew will encounter, and dealing with them first protects both the crew and the neighbouring properties. Pest issues come before the clearance. A vacant property develops them surprisingly quickly. Neighbouring properties are frequently affected too.

Animals left in a property are an immediate priority. A pet still in the house needs care arranged straight away, and where nobody in the family can take it, the RSPCA or a local rescue will advise on options. Animals come before anything else on the practical list. Local rescues will advise on options.

Where nobody has come forward, the process differs entirely. An estate with no known executor or next of kin is handled through the NSW Trustee and Guardian rather than by a family, and a neighbour or landlord discovering that situation should contact them rather than arranging a clearance. Unclaimed estates follow a separate process. Contact the trustee rather than a contractor.

Preparing a Property for Sale

Most estate properties end up being sold, and the clearance is the first step in that. An agent will usually want the property empty, cleaned and presentable before photographs, and the sequence of clearance, clean, minor repairs and then styling is the one that works. Clearance comes first in the sequence. Photographs follow all of the presentation work. Rushing to list before clearing rarely helps the price.

Minor repairs are frequently worth doing and frequently not. Patching, touch up painting and fixing an obviously broken fitting usually return more than they cost, while renovating an estate property before sale rarely does. Touch up work sits alongside the final clean. Small repairs generally pay for themselves. Full renovation before sale rarely does.

Styling with hired furniture is a separate decision again. An empty older property can present poorly, and agents commonly recommend styling, though the cost runs into thousands and whether it returns that depends on the market. Styling costs thousands rather than hundreds. Whether it returns that varies by market. Ask the agent for evidence rather than opinion.

Some buyers actively prefer a property sold as is. Developers, renovators and buyers looking for a project sometimes pay comparably for an uncleared property, which makes a full clearance and presentation unnecessary in that situation. Selling as is suits some properties. Ask the agent before spending anything. Not every property benefits from presentation.

Timing the clearance against the sale campaign matters. Booking the clearance and the clean with enough margin before photographs means neither is rushed, and an operator given a fortnight will schedule better than one given three days. Allow margin before the photography date. Rushed work shows in the result.

Sydney Metro Costs

Sydney rates run above regional New South Wales, driven by labour costs, disposal fees and travel across a large city. The market is deep enough to compare two or three operators without difficulty. What varies most across the metropolitan area is access, since a walk up unit in the inner suburbs and a house with a double garage in the west present entirely different jobs at the same nominal volume. Lift bookings in larger buildings sometimes need a week's notice. Strata approval can take longer again.

Apartment clearances bring building requirements that houses simply do not have. Lift bookings, restricted hours, contractor registration and sometimes owners corporation approval all apply, and none of it relates to the contents. Confirm what the building requires early. Lift bookings need arranging in advance.

Older inner suburban properties hold by far the most volume per square metre. Terraces and cottages occupied for decades accumulate in a way newer properties have not had time to, and the narrow access compounds the labour. A long occupancy means high contents volume. Narrow access compounds the work further. Metropolitan tip fees have risen steadily and now form a real share of a large quote.

Disposal costs across Sydney exceed regional rates noticeably. Tip fees are higher across the metropolitan area, which shows in the disposal component of any quote on a large clearance. Metropolitan tip fees run noticeably higher. Machinery, timber, drums and fencing materials all accumulate on rural properties. Clearing an outbuilding is its own job.

Regional NSW Costs

Regional rates run below Sydney, though travel and tip distance narrow the gap. Operators cover wide districts and a property at the end of a long drive carries that time somewhere in the figure. Ask which day they normally cover your area. Fitting into an existing run helps. Four loads at two hours of driving each is a full day before anything is lifted. That arithmetic sits inside a regional quote.

Rural properties frequently hold decades of accumulated equipment. Sheds, machinery, materials kept because they might be useful and outbuildings full of things nobody has looked at in years all add substantial volume. Construction waste appears at construction waste removal costs. Rural sheds hold an enormous amount.

Tip distance matters more regionally than the tip fee does. Where the nearest facility is an hour away, each load costs two hours of driving, and that shows in the quote on anything substantial. A large bin covers a surprising amount of a house. Distance costs more than the fees do. Items frequently find their way to somebody in the district who needs them.

Operator availability is thinner outside the major centres. Fewer firms handle estate work specifically, and lead times run longer, which is worth knowing when planning around a settlement date. Mattress disposal is priced at mattress disposal costs. Book earlier than you would in the city.

Local operators frequently know the family or the property. In smaller communities that familiarity usually works in your favour, both in how the work is handled and in how items find their way to people who want them. Local operators bring a useful familiarity. Smaller communities handle this rather well.

What to Look Out For

Search for documents before anybody removes anything. Wills, title deeds, insurance policies, share certificates, bank records and superannuation paperwork turn up in drawers, inside books, at the back of wardrobes and in filing boxes rather than anywhere obvious, and once a truck has gone they are gone for good. Check the unlikely places too, since cash and jewellery turn up in coat pockets, biscuit tins and behind picture frames, particularly with people who lived through periods when banks were not trusted. Photograph every room before anything moves, which takes about twenty minutes and answers questions arising months later. Then take what matters to you personally.

Understand that there is rarely any genuine urgency. Where probate applies the estate cannot be distributed until it is granted, a process taking weeks to months, so the pressure to clear a property quickly is usually self imposed or coming from an agent rather than from any legal requirement. The families who report the fewest regrets worked through a property over weeks rather than clearing it in a weekend. Where the property is not costing anything to hold, there is no reason at all to hurry.

Check what the operator does with anything that looks valuable. A reputable firm sets aside jewellery, coins, documents, photographs and anything personal rather than making a judgement about it, and that practice is the clearest mark of somebody who does this work properly. Never let a contractor remove firearms, which must be dealt with through the police, and return any prescription medicines to a pharmacy rather than sending them to landfill. Ask how an operator handles valuables before booking rather than afterwards.

Mark what stays rather than describing it. Read the will before clearing, since a bequest of a particular piece cannot be honoured once it has gone in a truck. Keep a simple record of what was disposed of, donated or sold, because beneficiaries do ask months later. Nothing formal is required for that purpose.

Give every family member a chance to take what matters first. A weekend where people can go through the house and identify what they want avoids the resentment that follows somebody discovering a piece has gone, and family at a distance can review photographs and flag items remotely. Settle any disagreement about specific items before the day rather than in front of a crew waiting to load. Somebody who declines to attend at all is protecting themselves rather than being unhelpful.

What to Look for in a Quote in NSW

An estate cleanout quote should state which service level applies, whether sorting is included or the clearance is removal only, and what happens to anything that appears valuable. It should list the disposal components separately where e waste, mattresses or green waste are involved, say whether donation coordination is included, and note whether a deep clean is priced in or extra. Any building access requirement or stair loading belongs on the document rather than arriving as a variation. The sorting arrangement and the disposal mix are the two items most likely to separate two quotes that look similar.

Give every operator the same information. Photographs of each room including the garage and shed, the property size, the access arrangement, whether a lift is available and roughly how long the property was occupied all shape what should be proposed. Send each of them the identical brief. Photographs of storage areas matter most.

Ask how they handle something that looks valuable. An operator who describes setting items aside and consulting you rather than making a judgement is telling you how they work, and that answer matters more here than the price does. Listen for how they answer that. It reveals more than any quote.

Settle the documents, the timing, the flagged items and the service level before anybody starts. Search the property thoroughly, resist any pressure to hurry, mark what stays and establish exactly what the operator will and will not sort. Related services are priced at hoarder cleanout costs and at furniture removal costs. With those four settled, the practical side is handled and you can give the rest of it the time it deserves.