Start an Estate Downsizing and Online Resale Service

Families buy through people they already trust, so map the trust first. Open a free spreadsheet (Google Sheets or Excel) and make two tabs: Referrals and Households. On Referrals, collect at least twenty contacts across at least five kinds: senior move managers, estate and probate attorneys, downsizing-focused realtors (SRES-designated), senior-community directors and activity coordinators, and charity-pickup coordinators (Goodwill, Salvation Army, Vietnam Veterans of America). Add consignment-shop owners, professional organizers, and estate-sale companies — they turn away small jobs and refer them out. Columns: name, business, category, county, phone or email, discovery source, warmth (cold / warm / met). Find names through the directories linked below, your state bar’s lawyer-referral service, and map searches like “assisted living [your county].”

The Households tab needs ten names, not demographics. List ten specific households expecting a downsizing, move, or estate settlement within six months — yours, relatives’, neighbors’, people from community groups or a place of worship. Columns: household and contact person, situation (move / estate / downsize), expected month, decision-maker (owner, adult child, executor), discovery source, warmth. Phase rule: nothing here costs money — no ads, no purchased lead lists, no entity filings. If the map takes more than an evening or two of searching and calling, it is being overbuilt.