Kevin Bowers Estates Sales & Appraisals

It was a lot of work. More than I could handle myself. Clearing out the storage has saved me $420 a month.

I have been attending Portland estate sales for many years, and I always look forward to a "Kevin sale". Kevin's experience, knowledge and network of contacts is probably the best in Portland. His team is incredibly friendly, accommodating, and calm when bombarded by demands from both buyers and sellers. I have never witnessed anything close his level of zen when running an estate sale. If I had to liquidate an estate in short order, Kevin would be at the top of my list. On several occasions, I've seen homes listed the Monday after his weekend sale. Kevin and his team have been in the business long enough to know how to price to sell. If priced too high, items sit and end up moving at 50-75% off, or consequently 'bought out' or donated to charity. If priced too low, Kevin gets a lower commission, and the estate a smaller check. There is a sweet spot when it comes to valuations and estate sales, and Kevin understands this. Unfortunately, some items sell at prices lower than what owners would desire. But this is understandable as there are usually only two days to sell everything and there is a finite amount of buyers in the Portland market. One negative (for buyers) is that "Kevin sales" are incredibly popular. It is not unusual for the line of buyers on opening day to be 100+ This means that items can sell quickly and some buyers can be left out. Consequently, this is a great problem to have if you're the estate and chose Kevin to help in liquidation.

From hoarder to minimalist in a weekend. Always a clean sale. Starts it up and cleans the entire house out in a weekend. Fast and the friendliest sales around. Largest customer base in Portland areas.

The sale went great. I will all ways go to his sales.

Regular customer

Kevin is always professional and a pleasure to work with. He's very good at what he does and well respected.

Kevin took many furniture and other items to Goodwill before the sale because he said they do not sell at estate sales. These items were in very good condition. He priced everything way below normal estate sale prices. For example a new, unopened counter top convection oven that normally sells between $80 and $100 he put $8.50 on it. There were many items he priced like that. 2 hours after the sale started he put everything at half price. A neighbor told me after the sale that she had tried to pay for my mother's stereo and lamp and his worker told her to just take it that they didn't work anyhow. She kept insisting to pay something and they refused to take any money for it. They got the stereo and lamp home and they both work fine. Kevin had people going in and out of the backyard hauling stuff away and they totally destroyed the gate. He left it laying in pieces on the ground. There was a car and a motor home he was selling for her as well that he priced under value as well. When I asked what he was going to price the car (2002 Ford Focus with less than 50,000 miles he said probably between $17,000 and $2,000. I then told him how few miles there was on it and he upped it to $2,500. I bought it. The motor home was a 2002 Minnie Winnie with very low miles he started bids at $3,000. My step brother bought it for more than double that just to not allow it to go to his people for so cheap. Kevin allows his group of people in before the sale starts to get all the best items that he has priced so rediculously low. I feel Kevin goes in and tries to get rid of everything as cheap as he can for his people that follow him around and then he is done and on to the next poor person who is unaware of how he operates. He definitely did a disservice for my mother's estate. I would never use Kevin or recommend him to anyone else.

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When I first contacted Kevin he said that he would come out and give us a complimentary consultation in the hopes of doing the estate sale with us. He came out to the estate and gave us a general, loose estimate for the value of the items he appraised. During the appraisal we noticed that he paid close attention to a few of the rare, expensive items. He said that he usually charges for these consultations, but his flyer claimed otherwise. After the appraisal he said that he would really like to work with us on the estate sale. A week and a half later he called to follow up with us. We agreed to work with him and arranged a date for him to come back out and decide which items should be in the estate sale. When he came back out, he walked in with his team of three other packers and he immediately noticed that the rare, expensive items were no longer in the "for sale" pile. He quickly commented, while looking at the remaining items, and said that all the money was gone, since we had taken out the rare, expensive items. There was one item in particular that he told me, after we told him that we were having reservations about selling it, that he was going to double the price because he already had a buyer for it. He was very upset that the valuable items were no longer going to be in the estate sale. During this, I had come across an appraisal from 2002 for the rare, expensive items and noticed that Kevin dramatically under valued them. Since I didn't include the rare, expensive items he told us that instead of taking 15% of the sales for his pay, he was going to take 35%. Before he left he gave me a hand written list of the items being sold, with no value, the date of the auction, and the name of who to make the check out to for the 35%. He then left with the items we had agreed to sale and took them, in conjunction with other items from another estate, to have a full estate sale. I sent him a text a few days later asking him for the value of the items that he took. He sent me a text back, the same day, letting me know that after he priced the items he would get back to me and let me know each of the items value. He got back to me a couple days later and said that if I gave him one particular piece, from the original group of items, that he could now triple the value. I replied back and told him that that particular piece was not for sale and I haven't heard from him since. To this day, he will not return any of my text messages and he still has all of our valuable items that were going to be in the estate sale.

Much to my surprise, the sale attracted about a thousand potential buyers. By the end of the sale on Sunday afternoon, about 80-90% of the items had been sold to individual buyers. After the sale closed, a bulk buyer came in to purchase quite a bit of the remainder. What didn't sell Mr. Bowers took to Goodwill (giving me the receipt) or had hauled out with the trash.

I was delighted and amazed at the scope of his services, efficiency, friendliness, responsiveness, and thoroughness. I was immensely relieved to have the house emptied for sale. I'm appalled to think that I originally considered putting on a garage sale. What a nighmare it would have been. I have no reservations whatsoever recommending Mr. Bowers. Experience matters.

Kevin was punctual, very experienced, with a remarkable knowledge of antiques. He was careful in his transporting of the antiques and sold them in a very successful estate sale.

Kevin professional & very helpful efficient.

I can't imagine trying to do that myself. They even sold a car for me! I netted a nice profit. His crew is wonderful. They knew that it was distressing for me to empty my parents' house and they were professional and understanding. Kevin also is a Certified Appraiser and values antiques and fine arts. Call him! He really knows his stuff!