The Browns Are Selling

You could call it a sales position, and it touches on real estate. It is emotionally straining at times, but also immensely rewarding. Its practitioners deal in antiques and appraisals, and are fairly selective about taking clients. They also do grunt work like cleaning out musty closets and scrubbing down floors. Jennee Del Vecchio and Tory Kolt head up The Browns Are Selling, one of the oldest firms in town that specialize in organizing and conducting estate sales. The pair bought the business early this year from founders Neal and Karen Brown, who started the firm here in 1991. Del Vecchio's variegated background serves her well in the estate-sales business. She is a gemologist and has owned a bookstore and an art gallery. Kolt and her husband, Donald, have been serial entrepreneurs for 25 years, running a full-service carwash and detailing shop, a catering business aimed at the off-road sports buggy crowd and selling T-shirts on the side. Both women were working in a business brokerage when they met the Browns, who approached the firm about selling their company. Founder Neal Brown still consults with the new partners on appraisals. The Browns Are Selling has clients other than heirs. People getting divorced or moving away, downsizing or selling their houses to move to assisted living - all may find these services useful. It's really helping people deal with life transitions. "The thing I realized after doing several of these sales is that you get involved with personal lives of individuals. It's a bigger help than I realized when we bought the business - the human aspect. We are helping people cope," Del Vecchio says. "I've enjoyed it. All our clients have been wonderful people. I haven't had a single bad experience this year." Kolt says the business is "like playing house every week. You get to go in and see some beautiful and unique furniture and artwork. "We take a lot of pressure off people who need to sell their prized possessions. It eases their mind, and that's really worthwhile. I like that." The new endeavor fits their talents. "We both have backgrounds in customer service," Kolt adds. The pair usually focus on just one sale every weekend. "It's a seven-days-a-week, 12-hour-days kind of job. It takes that kind of effort to do it right," founder Neal Brown says. The sale itself is open just one day, generally a Saturday. It is well advertised in the newspaper classifieds, through e-mail to loyal customers and by a blizzard of yellow and red signs leading to the house where the sale is conducted. A staff of up to seven employees of the firm conduct the sale. With estate sales, the houses have generally been sold by the time of the event. Some of the firm's referrals come from real-estate agents. "I think they do wonderful work," says Sally Inman, of Realty Executives of Southern Arizona. "I've given their names to quite a few clients. When they are through cleaning up, the house is just immaculate." Inman says The Browns Are Selling deals with properties other than estates. An older couple wishing to sell a large house with lots of furnishings, for example, can use their services. The firm generally books at least six weeks in advance for sales. Clients take any personal possessions they want out of the house and then Del Vecchio and Kolt sort through goods and organize them. The sale usually lasts eight hours and the firm takes one-third of the gross receipts. All advertising costs and cleaning expenses are covered. Leftover goods are sold to a bulk buyer or donated to charity. The house is then cleaned and left empty for a new owner. Kolt says the business is about more than moving goods. It's really an endeavor that deals with feelings. "Personal belongings deserve respect. People still living or passed away deserve that."