What an estate cleanout costs in San Diego

The short answer

Estate cleanouts are volume jobs, so they price off the truck ladder: quarter $241, three-eighths $338, half $431, five-eighths $513, three-quarters $587, seven-eighths $661, full $732.

A two-bedroom condo where the family has already taken what they want is often one half or three-quarter load. A single-story house in Clairemont, Allied Gardens or San Carlos that somebody lived in for forty years is usually a full load and then some. Heavy specialty items are priced separately - an upright piano is $290, a baby grand $438, a hot tub $322, a pool table $603.

The visit minimum is $75, which never binds on a job like this, but it is worth knowing for the small second trip.

What a San Diego estate house actually holds

The housing stock tells you what you are walking into before you open the door.

The postwar single-story tracts - Clairemont, Allied Gardens, San Carlos, Serra Mesa, Linda Vista, parts of Chula Vista - were built without basements. Forty years of accumulation therefore went three places: the two-car garage, the side yard behind the gate, and the attic above the hall. The garage is the big one, and it is usually full to the door with a workbench, paint, tools, boxes and a chest freezer that has been running since the Reagan administration.

The North County and Rancho Bernardo retirement communities are different - smaller homes, tidier, but with dense storage in closets and a garage organized to the inch. Volume is lower, sorting time is higher.

La Jolla, Point Loma and Mission Hills estates add the two things that break schedules: heavy antique furniture and hillside access.

Sorting comes before pricing

Do not book a truck until the family has done a pass. The order that works:

• Keep. Whatever family members are taking. Physically move it to one room and mark the door.
• Sell. Estate sale companies operate all over the county and are worth calling for a house with real furniture, jewelry, tools or mid-century pieces. They will take a commission and they will leave the unsellable remainder, which is the load we price.
• Donate. Clean upholstery, working small appliances, books, kitchenware. Habitat ReStore and the larger thrift operations will take a lot of it, though sun-faded furniture gets declined.
• Remove. Everything else, which is where the truck ladder applies.

Skipping the sell step on a La Jolla or Kensington house can cost the estate real money. Skipping it on a garage full of particleboard costs nothing.

The documents no one warns you about

Two things that matter more in an estate than in a normal cleanout:

Paper. Deeds, titles, tax records, insurance policies and savings bonds live in the most boring box in the house. Have somebody open every file box before the truck comes. A box of books is $45 to remove and worth nothing; the box next to it may be the one with the house paperwork in it.

The safe. Small safes turn up in bedroom closets constantly. Removal of a small safe is $100, but open it first or bring it with you - there is no un-ringing that bell after it is on the truck.

Access, and why San Diego estates get quoted wrong elsewhere

Three patterns cause trouble here:

• Canyon-lot houses. Mission Hills, Del Cerro, Bay Park, Rolando and the Mount Helix slopes put the front door a flight or two below the street. Everything goes up, not down, and it goes up outdoors.
• Hillside driveways. Point Loma and La Jolla have driveways that are steep, short and often shared. The truck parks on the street and the crew walks.
• Gated communities. Rancho Bernardo, 4S Ranch, Carmel Valley, Eastlake and much of North County need gate access arranged and often have posted hours for service vehicles. Tell the gate the day before.

None of it changes the price. There is no stair charge, no long-carry charge, no access surcharge. The quoted tier is the tier.

Two priced examples

Rancho Bernardo two-bedroom, family already took what they wanted. Half truck $431, one visit. Add an upright piano nobody wanted and it is $431 + $290 = $721.

Clairemont three-bedroom, lived in since the 1960s. Full truck $732 for the house, then a second visit for the garage. Itemizing the garage separately: chest freezer $146 + washer $133 + dryer $128 + lawn mower $65 + weight bench $69 + large junk pile $208 = $749. Or take the full-truck tier again at $732 if it fills one.

Both totals are additions you can check against the published list. Nothing is discovered at the door.

Heavy and specialty items

Old solid-wood furniture is the quiet budget item in San Diego estates. A house from the 1950s often has three or four pieces on that list, and they are individually heavier than a modern sofa.

Timing it around the sale

If the house is going on the market, the cleanout sits between the estate sale and the photographer. Agents here want the house empty for photos because San Diego listings sell on light, views and outdoor space, and a full garage in the photos reads as deferred maintenance.

Give yourself two visits if you can: one big one after the estate sale, and a small one after the family's final walkthrough for the things that surface late. That second visit is often small enough to be per-item - a large junk pile at $208, or a few bags at $132 for ten.

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