Clayton sits a few blocks from the St. Louis County Probate Court, and a large share of the liquidations we run start with an executor who’s already been in that building — or is about to be. The court process and the estate sale process run on separate tracks, but they intersect at a few specific points, and knowing where those points are saves an executor from either stalling the sale unnecessarily or moving faster than the court process allows.
What has to happen before contents can be sold
An estate’s personal representative needs to be formally appointed — meaning letters testamentary or letters of administration issued by the court — before they have legal authority to dispose of estate property, including running a sale of the contents. Until that happens, nobody, including a hired liquidation company, can sell anything out of the house on the estate’s behalf.
This doesn’t mean nothing can happen before appointment. The walkthrough and written valuation can happen early, since they don’t involve selling anything — they’re documentation. Many Clayton executors get the valuation done in the same window they’re filing the initial probate paperwork, so the estate sale is ready to move the moment appointment comes through instead of starting the clock from zero.
The inventory requirement
Missouri probate requires the personal representative to file an inventory of estate assets, including personal property, within a set window after appointment — the exact deadline is case-specific, and that’s a question for the estate attorney, not a liquidation company. What we can provide is the documentation that inventory relies on: an itemized, dated, written valuation of the home’s contents, done before anything is priced or sold.
That valuation is free whether or not it ever gets used for a filing, and it holds up better as supporting documentation than a verbal estimate or an executor’s own guess at value, because it’s dated and itemized before the contents were disturbed.
Running the sale while probate is still open
Full probate administration in Missouri often takes months, sometimes longer with a contested or complex estate. Waiting for the entire process to close before running an estate sale would leave a house sitting empty and un-maintained for that whole window — which creates its own costs and risks. In practice, the sale runs once the personal representative is appointed and authorized, well before the estate formally closes.
The proceeds from the sale then become part of the estate accounting the personal representative is responsible for, and the itemized settlement we provide — what sold, for what, the commission, and the net to the estate, reconciled within 14 days — becomes part of that record.
Multiple heirs, one house
Clayton and the surrounding corridor also see a lot of estates with several heirs who need to agree before anything moves. The written valuation does double duty here too — it gives every heir the same documented starting point, which tends to shortcut disagreements about what things are “really” worth before a sale even starts.
What it costs
35% commission on gross sales, $0 out of pocket, and a minimum threshold guarantee — typically around $2,000 — for smaller estates. None of that changes based on where the estate is in the probate timeline.
If you’re early in a Clayton probate matter and want documentation ready before appointment comes through, start with a free walkthrough — it costs nothing and doesn’t commit the estate to anything.