Today we’d like to introduce you to Todd Gray.
Hi Todd, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I was an English Major with a Creative Writing Emphasis at Western Michigan University in the early-/mid- ‘90s. I minored in journalism.
It was my minor that helped me to get my first job post-college. In a nutshell, I began my career as a journalist (sports), then moved to advertising (copywriting/editing), then to communications/project management at a couple of corporations. These jobs represented the first five years of my career.
My father fell ill at this time with melanoma that had metastasized and spread throughout much of his body. He died eight months later, in 2002, at the age of 59.
I began to rethink my life. I was passionless about my work, I began to feel that life was going to pass me by, and I needed a change.
One summer day in 2003, I was driving through East Grand Rapids, Michigan when I saw a sign for an estate sale. I had never been to an estate sale, but I was intrigued. I attended the sale, gravitated toward the books (English major here), purchased 8-10 of them, and eagerly researched their values online when I returned home.
I was able to flip a handful of the books for a respectable profit. This encouraged me to attend more sales.
Before long, I was buying and selling antique books, ephemera, and other historical memorabilia full-time. Over the years, my knowledge base expanded to include pottery, art, primitive antiques, and more. I purchased much of my inventory at estate sales, but I also attended auctions, and received calls from people looking to sell their libraries or collections.
After a few years, I stumbled upon the opportunity to conduct an estate sale, which resulted in an exciting and rewarding experience that I sought to repeat. For the next 10 years, I essentially juggled two businesses: dealing in collectible books, historical memorabilia, etc., and conducting estate sales.
It is worth noting that in my childhood, I collected a wide variety of items: trading cards, matchbooks, dinosaur books, any insect or small reptile that I could catch and keep as “pets,” and much more. These days, I collect nothing outside of my daughters’ childhood artwork, correspondence from loved ones, and the like. Conducting estate sales — the sorting and staging, the research and pricing, and the excitement and fast pace of sale days satisfies the old collector’s bug that I had in my youth.
Fifteen years into the world of both buying and selling, and conducting estate sales, and more time, effort and cost than I care to think about, I had to accept the reality that the results were less than what I had expected when I left my comfortable job years before.
In 2017, I realized that I needed to choose one job or the other, and I decided to conduct estate sales full-time. Simply put, the money was both better and more consistent.
I was fortunate to have already made a bit of a name for myself, and soon I was receiving more quality opportunities than I could handle.B be
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has been anything but a smooth road.
My first 15 years in the business were arguably the biggest challenge of my life, all the while raising two daughters. The world of buying and selling antiquarian books and historical memorabilia requires long hours for often little reward. It is unpredictable, to say the least, and often proved to be a feast or famine endeavor.
It was not until 2017, when I decided to conduct estate sales full-time, that I finally felt truly successful. Business took off, and since that time I have been fortunate to have received more quality opportunities than I can handle.
Nonetheless, every sale and every workday present challenges. Most of my clients have either recently lost an elderly parent, or are moving from a house in which they have lived for decades, raised their children, and created many of their most cherished memories. I am tasked with selling many items that have great emotional value to my clients, be it the homeowners themselves or the children of the former homeowner.
The importance of caring, being a good listener, and respecting each and every item in a house cannot be overstated.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I conduct estate sales for people. That is, once a house or a condo is unoccupied, and my clients and/or their families have removed all of the items that they choose to keep, my staff and I stage the house in preparation for the sale. We remove items from cupboards, closets and boxes, and set up everything so that it displays nicely and is in the best possible position to sell.
The qualities that set my company apart from others include my amazing staff, our passion for this work, and our collective experience (more than 100 years total).
I am most proud of our professionalism, our ability to communicate effectively with clients who are often going through a very difficult and/or challenging stage of their lives, and our ability to maximize the value of the contents of a house given the challenge that is conducting a two-day estate liquidation.
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
Where to begin? In short, there are more people to whom I owe credit and thanks than I would be able to list. I have been fortunate throughout my life to have received unconditional love and support from many people, including my wife, Kelly, and a loving, supportive family all-around, my amazing staff, my friends, so many clients who have trusted me to do such a challenging and sensitive job for them, and more.
However, if there is one person to whom I must credit the most, it would be my mother, who supported me in all that I did throughout my life until she passed away in the spring of 2024 following a four-year battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
Witnessing how hard my mother worked, watching her succeed in every professional endeavor that she undertook, and seeing how she always treated everyone with caring and respect was among the greatest gifts that I have been given.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.foresthillsestatesales.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1H2eWuqmbk/?mibextid=wwXIfr
