Frequently Asked Questions

We're a locally owned team with the support of a national organization. Our job is to relieve the stress of this transition so you can focus on your family's next step.

Will I work with the same person throughout my project?

Yes. Jessica Watts owns and runs Caring Transitions of West Denver. From your first call to the final walkthrough, you work directly with the owner or one of her team leads.

They plan, price, and personally oversee the work from start to finish. Our field team is background-checked, bonded, insured, and trained. You won't be passed around a call center or shuffled between account managers.

Why work with a smaller, owner-run business instead of a large company?

Jessica brings an MBA in entrepreneurship and years in client success to the work. 

For families in Lakewood, Littleton, Highlands Ranch, and across West Denver, that means direct answers, faster decisions, and close attention. When we say we'll get it done, we get it done.

Do you handle full home clean-outs for larger homes, including garages, basements, and storage units?

We do. Our home clean out services cover the entire property, not just the main rooms. 

That includes garage and basement clean outs, packed attics, and storage units that have been filling up for years. Anything with resale value goes to an estate sale or a CT Bids online auction, anything donatable gets donated, and the rest is disposed of responsibly.

What services do you offer? Do you only run estate sales?

The most common thing we hear is that people assume we only do estate sales. We do a lot more than that. We offer downsizing help, packing, senior moves, in-person estate sales, CT Bids online auctions, full liquidation, and complete home clean-outs. 

We can do any one of this range of services for a family or all of them. A family who calls about an estate sale often realizes we can also pack up their parent, coordinate the move, and clear the home when it's over. 

Each client is unique, and so is the mix of services to support their individual needs.

We offer services to pack and unpack at the new location. We have a long standing partnership with local moving companies that handle the actual movement of your property.  

What can you sell well, and what doesn't sell well?

We're honest with families about this up front. What sells well are the things you can't buy new anymore: antique and mid-century furniture, retro pieces, sterling silver, collectible coins, 14-karat gold jewelry, original art, and specialty collections. On CT Bids, those items reach buyers and collectors across the country.

Furniture is the honest exception. We get a lot of calls to sell standard, mass-market furniture, and we can't promise strong prices on it. 

A typical sofa or a dining set from a major retailer just doesn't fetch much online, and an in-person sale is often the better fit. We'll always clear it out for you. We just won't quote you prices we can't deliver.

How much does it cost?

Costs depend on the scope of work. While each client is unique, their needs for our services are as well. At Caring Transitions of West Denver, we offer packing, move coordination, and unpacking at $75 per person, per hour, quoted as a range up front.

The actual time depends on how quickly decisions get made about what to keep, so we quote a range rather than a fixed number. Home clean-outs and estate liquidation costs are based on square footage, how full the home is, and disposal fees, all assessed at the consultation. 

For a CT Bids online auction in our area of Colorado, there's a listing fee depending on how much we list, plus a split where you keep 60% and we keep 40%. We're not the cheapest option, and we own that. We carry liability insurance, pay our staff a proper wage, and train our people for this specific work.

What is CT Bids, and how does it work?

CT Bids is our online auction platform, and it's unique to Caring Transitions. We photograph and list items from the home, buyers across the country bid on them, and local winners come in for a scheduled pickup window afterward. Non-local buyers have their items shipped through our shipping services.

Bidding starts at $1 on every item, so buyers compete against each other, which drives prices up rather than down. As an estate sale company in West Denver and Highlands Ranch, CO, we typically sell at least 95% of what we list online. 

Please note that if an item needs to be sold for a minimum amount (for ex, a car), we will set a reserve that must be met before the item is sold. This is only done for large high dollar items like cars, boats, and motorcycles.

Why choose an online auction over an in-person sale, and will strangers walk through the house?

A few reasons. Buyers compete online instead of talking the price down in person, the audience is national rather than whoever shows up that day, and sell-through is much higher. 

The privacy point matters to a lot of families: with a CT Bids online auction, buyers bid remotely and only come in during a scheduled pickup window, so the home isn't open for browsing. During pickup a Caring Transition team member accompanies the buyer through the home. 

If having strangers walk through a parent's house concerns you, this addresses it. 

An in-person estate sale does bring buyers to the home, so we talk through both at the consultation and let you choose which makes you feel more comfortable.

What happens to items that don't sell?

Our approach is donation-first. If something still has value and isn't sold, we find a way to donate it so someone else can use it, rather than throwing into a landfill. 

One of the biggest fears families share with us is that a parent's belongings will end up in a dumpster, and that's not how we work. For items with no resale or donation value, we handle responsible disposal as part of the cleanout.

How long does a project take?

Most projects wrap up in two days to two weeks, including emptying and clearing out an entire home. Families who take it on themselves often spend months, still paying taxes, a mortgage, or other carrying costs on a property that's sitting empty, and going through everything item by item stretches it out further. 

A simple cleanout moves faster than a full project that combines a move, an auction, and a cleanout. We give you a realistic timeline at the consultation.

What happens during the free consultation?

It's free, it happens in your home, and it usually runs about 30 minutes to an hour. We sit down with you, talk through what you need and your timing, then walk the home together to map out what the project entails. 

A big part of that visit is earning your trust and explaining the process. We know you are letting people into a home full of memories. 

There's nothing you need to bring, and it isn't a commitment. It's a chance to see how we work and decide if we're the right fit.

How do you vet your staff, and how do I know my belongings will be respected?

Every member of our team is background-checked and trained specifically for this kind of work before they enter a client's home, and we carry liability insurance, so we're accountable. 

We know a household of memories holds real value and that many things in a home are sacred, and we handle them that way. That's also why we lead with donation over disposal for anything that isn't sold.

We serve Lakewood, Littleton, Highlands Ranch, Wheat Ridge, and the surrounding communities, including Applewood, Bow Mar, Governors Ranch, and Roxborough. 

You can also read what local families say about working with us. 

Whether it's relocation, an estate sale, or a full home clean-out, we're here when you're ready. Call us today for a free in-home consultation.