Minneapolis
Before You List:
Pre-Sale Home Cleanout in Minneapolis
Selling a Minneapolis home starts underground. Before the sign goes up — and before a TISH evaluator can even look at the house — the basement, garage and attic have to be cleared so the mechanicals show and the photos sell. We do exactly that, fast: a full basement or garage is a flat truck-fill from $241 up to $732, the Minnesota sales tax is already inside the number, we donate the reusable through Bridging, and we hand you a broom-clean home ready for the camera. Send a photo, get the exact price, no on-site estimate.
In Minneapolis, the cleanout comes before the listing — because of TISH
Most cities let you list first and declutter later. Minneapolis is different. The city mandates a Truth-in-Sale-of-Housing (TISH) evaluation, performed by a city-licensed evaluator, before a single-family home, duplex or townhouse can be listed, advertised or shown. The report is valid for two years or one sale, and new construction with a certificate of occupancy is exempt — but for the vast bungalow-and-four-square stock that makes up the city, TISH is step one. The evaluator has to get to the furnace, the water heater and the electrical panel — almost always in a full basement — and note the condition of the home throughout. A basement stacked to the joists and a garage you can't walk into make that visit harder and the eventual photos worse. So the smart sequence is: clear it, then TISH, then shoot, then list. This service exists to make that first step take a day, not a month of weekend trips to the dump.
How a pre-listing cleanout works
- 1. Send a photo, lock the flat price. Show us the basement, the garage, the attic — or all three — and we quote it flat from the photo, with MN sales tax already in the number. No walk-through estimate, no "we'll know when we get there."
- 2. We schedule it before your TISH and photos. Pick a day ahead of the evaluator's visit and the shoot; same-day is often available when a crew is near you.
- 3. We clear it and hand it back broom-clean. An insured crew carries everything up from the basement, down from the attic and out of the detached garage, routes the usable goods to donation, and leaves the spaces swept and camera-ready.
What a pre-sale cleanout costs
Flat, photo-quoted, priced by how much fills the truck. Every figure below already includes the carry up the basement stairs, the disposal and the roughly 9.025% Minnesota sales tax.
| Scope | Flat price |
|---|---|
| A corner of the basement or a few leftover items — quarter truck | $241 |
| 3/8 truck | $338 |
| A typical cleared basement — half truck | $431 |
| 5/8 truck | $513 |
| Basement plus garage — three-quarter truck | $587 |
| 7/8 truck | $661 |
| Basement, garage & attic together — full truck | $732 |
$75 minimum covers a single leftover piece — an old dresser ($126), a dead water heater ($131), a worn sofa ($126). A whole pre-sale clear-out is far better value as a truck-fill, and the photo quote always shows you the cheaper path. Bigger than one truck? A packed generational home is still quoted flat from photos before we start.
The three spaces buyers judge first
- The basement. In Minneapolis it's a real, full basement — and after a few spring melts, it's often damp boxes, old furniture and decades of storage down a narrow, steep stairway. It's also where the TISH evaluator spends the most time. A cleared, swept basement reads as "dry and maintained"; a full one reads as "problem." We carry it all up and out.
- The detached garage. Off the alley, packed with yard tools, old paint, tires and a lawn mower or two. Buyers picture their cars there, not your clutter. We clear it and haul what the city won't.
- The attic. The forgotten layer — holiday bins, broken furniture, insulation-dusted boxes. Empty, it photographs as storage and headroom; full, it hides the roofline. We go up and bring it down.
We donate the reusable — and leave a receipt
A pre-sale cleanout turns up a lot of still-good furniture, and reuse comes before the incinerator. We route usable pieces to Bridging, the large Twin Cities furniture bank that helps families set up a home after a shelter or a crisis, plus Goodwill–Easter Seals Minnesota, the Salvation Army, Habitat for Humanity ReStore and Arc's Value Village. On a downsizing or estate sale we can leave you a donation receipt for the tax file. What's genuinely spent is disposed of responsibly through the Hennepin County system, with MN-banned e-waste (TVs, monitors) diverted to recycling and freon recovered on any old fridge or freezer. It's a cleaner story to tell a buyer and a lighter load on the county.
Built for realtors, stagers and executors
If you're the listing agent, this is the vendor call that makes your timeline work. We coordinate directly with you or the stager, quote the seller a flat number up front so there's no on-site surprise to smooth over later, and time the haul to the TISH date and the photo shoot. A broom-clean basement and an empty garage stage better, photograph better and inspect better — and a home that shows well from day one spends fewer days on market. For executors handling an estate sale, we run discreet, insured, multi-day clear-outs with donation receipts and protect floors and landscaping on the way out. One flat price, one crew, one less thing between you and the sign in the yard.
When sellers call us
The trigger is almost always the calendar: a TISH evaluation booked and a basement that isn't ready; a listing date set and a garage nobody can walk through; a spring-melt push to sell, with the busiest declutter window of the year colliding with a wet basement; a downsizing or estate sale where a lifetime of belongings has to clear before showings; or a snowbird departure, selling the family home on the way to Arizona. Whatever started it, the job is the same — send a photo, get a flat tax-included price, and hand the house back broom-clean for the camera.
What Minneapolis sellers say
"TISH inspector was coming Thursday and our Fulton basement was 40 years of boxes. They cleared it and the garage in one morning, flat price with tax already in it, and donated half of it. The listing photos looked twice the house."
"I list homes across the southwest side and I use them before every TISH. The seller gets a flat number, no surprise on the day, and I get a broom-clean basement to shoot. It's the easiest part of my prep now."
"Settling my dad's Longfellow house as executor. They handled the whole basement and attic over two days, gave me a donation receipt for the good furniture, and were careful with the floors. Ready to list a week early."
Pre-sale cleanout questions, answered
Does TISH really require clearing the basement first?
The evaluator has to reach the mechanicals and assess condition, so most sellers clear the basement, garage and attic before the visit. Book the haul ahead of your TISH date and photos.
How much does it cost?
Truck-fill flat: quarter $241, half $431, full $732. $75 minimum on a single item. MN sales tax and the basement-stairs carry are already inside.
Can you do it before my showing?
Yes — send a photo, lock the price, we schedule ahead of your TISH and shoot. Same-day is often available.
Do you donate?
Usable furniture goes to Bridging, Goodwill, the Salvation Army and Habitat ReStore, with a donation receipt available on estate sales.
Do you work with agents?
Constantly — flat quotes, no on-site surprises, timed to the listing calendar.
Winter surcharge?
None. We haul in the snow and ice at the same flat price as summer.
Cleanout services in detail
Ready to Get It Gone?
Send a photo and get one flat price back in seconds — carry-out, hauling and disposal are all in it.
Upload Photos & Get Your QuotePrefer texting? 💬 Text (612) 493-1155 — send a photo, get the price.