When the time comes, we'll handle it with care.
Community-rooted estate sales for Detroit families navigating loss, transition, or downsizing. Fair pricing, transparent process, and your loved one's home treated with the dignity it deserves.
A home holds more than possessions. It holds a family's life — decades of decisions, repairs, hospitality, and love. Letting go of it deserves more care than a national company taking forty percent off the top.
Three commitments that set this work apart.
Fair, transparent pricing
Twenty-eight to thirty percent commission — well below the industry standard of forty to fifty. No hidden fees. Detailed accounting and a clear settlement after every sale.
Community-rooted, not extractive
A nonprofit service from Abayomi CDC. Wealth stays in Detroit families and Detroit neighborhoods. Twenty-seven years of trusted community work behind every sale.
Care for what comes next
Adult children and heirs are connected to Abayomi's homeownership counseling and down payment assistance programs — turning the close of one chapter into the opening of another.
From first call to final settlement.
A free, no-pressure consultation
A conversation with our coordinator — by phone or in your home — to understand your situation, timeline, and questions. No commitment required.
Assessment and a clear estimate
We walk through the home, document the inventory, research market comparables, and provide a written estimate with the commission structure laid out plainly.
Marketing and the sale itself
Professional photography, listings across estate sale networks and local channels, and a respectfully run event — typically over a weekend. We handle setup, pricing, customer flow, and payment.
Settlement, follow-up, and what's next
An itemized accounting and payment to your family within five business days. Unsold inventory is donated, consigned, or removed — your choice. And if heirs are interested, we connect them to homeownership support.
Full-service, start to finish.
One commitment, everything handled.
We don't ask families in transition to manage logistics. From the first walk-through to the final settlement, Legacy Forward handles every part of the sale with care and transparency.
- i. Assessment, inventory, and fair-market pricing
- ii. Professional photography and marketing
- iii. Staging, hosting, and running the sale
- iv. Secure payment processing, in person and online
- v. Itemized settlement and prompt payment
- vi. Cleanup, donation, and disposition of what remains
For families who want their story preserved.
Origin is a cultural preservationist — devoted to the heritage and legacy of the works, records, and lived histories that have transformed us, and that shape the future of creative and cultural research.
Detroit: A Housing Story is among Origin's first published collections — a book, an installation, and a living archive of the families who built this city, beginning with those served through Legacy Forward.
Participation is invited, never required. There is no additional cost, and you choose what to share and how it's used.
Origin preserves what carries the weight of a life and the legacy of a people. Among the materials Origin accepts and stewards:
- Photographs & recordings — vernacular, professional, archival; audio, film, oral history
- Papers & ephemera — deeds, letters, manuscripts, neighborhood materials
- Works of art — paintings, prints, sculpture, textiles, design
- Books & records — first editions, family bibles, vinyl, sheet music, libraries
- Artifacts & objects of provenance — furniture, instruments, tools, heirlooms with significance
Origin's work depends on community partnership. There are several ways to take part:
- Refer a family whose home or story deserves to be preserved
- Sponsor a collection — underwrite the photography, oral history, and curatorial work
- Donate materials — works of art, books, recordings, artifacts, papers of cultural or historical significance
- Partner with us — museums, libraries, galleries, archives, and cultural institutions welcomed
Care, in every detail.
"Families for the future."
Tell us a little about your situation, and we'll reach out to schedule a free, no-pressure consultation. There's no cost and no obligation.