JAG Real Estate in North Pacific Beach believes their industry is about relationships, not transactions.
This is one of many reasons why their firm is holding a grand estate sale featuring treasures from five distinct properties on Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 29-30, from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Palm & Sage Estate Sales.
The team of JAG Real Estate consists of Jason Coleman, Gizem Keskin, Jackie Guiterrez, and Sanja Sullivan.
Coleman talked about the genesis of JAG and of the estate sales arm of their business, Palm & Sage Estate Sales.
“Sanya and I joined forces last year, and both of us had been talking about family members who basically were not getting the services that they need as they aged,” said Coleman. “We discovered a lot of our clients in real estate were having the same problems. So, we would call and try to organize some kind of estate sale for people who were downsizing, retired, or who had lost a family member. We decided we just wanted to build something that bridged that gap.”
Once she became a senior real estate specialist, Sullivan became sensitized to the growing number of aging baby boomers born between 1946 and 1964 who had special needs peculiar to their age group going unmet.
She said one of those needs was “to sell lots of good quality stuff they’ve accumulated during their lifetimes.”
Sullivan added, “When you talk about baby boomers and accumulation, they tend to have bigger homes. Now those homes are not practical for their lifestyle. So our clients are looking to downsize or, if they have to go into assisted living, their adult children, who might not be living here, are crushed to assist their parents in selling or renting their homes — and they don’t know what to do with all their items.”
Sullivan noted downsizing for seniors is especially a problem in La Jolla and parts of Pacific Beach because of restrictions by HOAs, private homeowners associations that make and enforce rules for planned communities, like condo buildings.
“Because of HOA restrictions in the community, they’re not allowed to do the estate sale at their home,” she said, adding that reality ultimately led to the creation of Palm & Sage Estate Sales, which allows clients to sell their furniture and other goods on consignment with JAG, which takes a small percentage for hosting their estate sale.
“We go to their house, organize everything and help the family decide what they want to keep, sell, donate or trash, and then we help them price it, and we prepare an estate sale for a weekend to help them liquidate,” explained Sullivan, adding, “Luckily, there was a space available for rent and we were able to lease it.”
“It’s all senior services-related,” pointed out Coleman about the estate sale process. “That’s what we’re trying to do.”
Sullivan talked about what is happening behind the scenes for the Aug. 29-30 estate sale they’re hosting that weekend for five different clients at Palm & Sage Estate Sales. “We’re probably going to have people who are looking for things that they can resell,” she said. “We’re trying to make it convenient.”
Explaining how consignment works for estate sales, Sullivan said: “If you have things you want to sell, we look through it together, we sign an agreement, we tell you what we think your things are going to sell for, and then we keep it in the store for up to 90 days. Whatever doesn’t sell after 90 days, you can choose if you want to donate it, junk it, or leave it.”
When it comes to estate sales, Coleman said some clients “just don’t know where to start.” He added, “People have been calling it the boomer burden.”
That “burden” ultimately led to the birth of Palm & Sage Estate Sales. “I knew we needed to figure out what we could do to help clients feel like we got some stuff handled for them,” Coleman concluded.
