What it's like running an LA estate sale business

The market for secondhand shopping is growing, something you can see firsthand by the sometimes hours-long lines at estate sales hosted by Handled in Los Angeles. Amy Byer is the founder and owner of the business, which curates around 20 estate sales a year.

“What we have done is really trying to set the collection up for success by staging it like a desirable store,” Byer said at a Beverly Hills home, a few days before an estate sale. She and her team spent days arranging ceramics, books, jewelry, and clothing in different areas of the home, as well as researching and pricing each item.

Her company offers two levels of service for a flat fee — one where they just hold the sale, and another where they hold the sale and then empty the home out completely, donating and junking what’s leftover, depending on the items.

Byer got into the estate sale business after her mother passed away in 2015.

“I didn’t know what to do,” she said. “So I hired a company, handed them the keys, got on a plane back to LA, and watched as they handled her things so beautifully. I was blown away, and I knew immediately I had found a new career path.”

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