Selling an estate at auction in the Black Hills usually starts with one phone call, a walk-through of the property, and a plan for what sells, what stays, and what gets donated or hauled off. From there we photograph, describe, and catalog each lot, list everything on HiBid for a set bidding window, and handle pickup at the end. You don't have to sort, price, or price-tag anything yourself before we come look.
We're Matt and Dawn Ramsey, and we've been running online auctions from Hermosa, SD since 2018, about 16 miles south of Rapid City. Most of the estates we handle belong to families who are settling a parent's place, closing out a shop, or clearing a house after a move. Here's how the whole thing tends to go.
What happens when I first call you about an estate?
We talk on the phone, then we come out and look. That visit is free, and it's where most of the questions get answered — what's worth listing separately, what sells better grouped in lots, what's probably not worth the effort of hauling. We'll walk the house, the garage, the shop, the outbuildings, the fence line if there's equipment parked out there.
Then we'll go over how the sale would work, what our commission looks like, and whether the auction runs on site or whether we haul items to our building. Families dealing with an estate auction in southwestern South Dakota often have heirs in three different states, so we're used to doing a lot of this over phone and email. You can also start the conversation through our sell with us page if that's easier than calling.
How do you get everything ready to sell?
This is the part that takes the real work, and it's the part we do. Every lot gets cleaned up enough to see, photographed from a few angles, measured or model-numbered where that matters, and written up honestly — including the chips, the rust, and the "untested, sold as is."
Shop contents are their own project. Tools, welders, air compressors, hand tools by the tote — a good shop and tool auction in South Dakota lives or dies on whether the descriptions tell buyers what they're actually bidding on. We wrote up more detail on that in our post about getting shop tools and equipment ready for auction if you want to see what we look for.
Once the catalog is built, the auction goes live on HiBid, which puts the estate in front of bidders across the country instead of just whoever can drive out on a Saturday. Bidding stays open for a stretch of days, and lots close on a staggered timer with extended bidding, so nobody wins by sniping the last second.
What happens after the auction closes?
When the last lot is marked Sold, buyers get invoiced automatically and we schedule pickup. We keep pickup windows longer than most and we help load — that matters when a family is 300 miles away and can't babysit a driveway for a week. Our rundown on what pickup and shipping really look like covers how out-of-state buyers get their items.
After pickup and settlement, you get a line-by-line statement showing what each lot brought, less commission and any agreed expenses, along with your payout. Anything that didn't sell, we talk through options — relisting, donation, or disposal.
If you're weighing this for a place near Hermosa, Rapid City, Custer, or anywhere in the southern Hills, our frequently asked questions answer a lot of the small stuff, and you can always just call us and ask.