Walk in to an impeccably neat bungalow in the Bagley neighborhood and be greeted by Bernard Davis sitting by a card table with a cash box and a welcoming smile for all attending his estate sale. Good deals await.

In the crowded arena of estate sale purveyors, where 50 to 100 sales crop up weekly from spring through late fall, Bernard runs one of the few African American estate sale companies, one with a 16-year reputation of taking care of  his customers, both buyers and sellers.

“Detroit is my market. Some estate sale dealers don’t like coming in. That’s fine. More business for me. Detroit is a hidden secret. People live in their homes 40, 50, 60 years and collect beautiful things. This is where customers find the very best stuff,” says Bernard, owner of Bernard Davis Estate Sales, with five full-time employees he cherishes.

“Detroit is a hidden secret. People live in their homes 40, 50, 60 years and collect beautiful things.” – Bernard Davis, founder & owner, Bernard Davis Estate Sales

Streams of people come in to examine the French Provincial couches, fur coats, designer dresses, books, record albums, tools and kitchen appliances, even a canvas cot in the garage. Many walk out with bags chocked full of stuff. Bernard says unopened kitchen and cleaning supplies, garden things, mid-century modern furniture and name brand clothing sell best.

Alas, the French Provincial furniture rarely sells. Just not a draw these days. “Just not desirable in this market. If you take it to Atlanta, strip and refinish it, you’ll make big money,” he says.

What’s hot?

“Mid-century furniture, sleek and contemporary. People moving back to Detroit want that vintage look,” Bernard says.

He walks a careful line between pleasing clients who contract with him to put their lifelong possessions up for public sale and the customer base that depends on him for offering quality merchandise at prices a third or a quarter of retail. Like his colleagues and competitors, he advertises every sale on  the website, www.estatesales.net, as a go-to source, because it sends free emails to subscribers with the dealer’s name and phone number, pictures and descriptions of current stuff for sale and a map of how to get there.

“People tell their friends and relatives I have a reputation as honest and trustworthy. Each happy customer is my billboard,” he says.

Bernard honed his talent for knowing what sells and how to display it for maximum visibility while attending Marygrove College and Wayne State University. He has a dual degree in business and interior design from WSU.  He ran an interior decorating company for several years until his friend and mentor, antique dealer Henry Harper suggested he run estate sales because he had a keen eye for household goods and a grounded sense of business. He never stopped thanking his mentor.

One of his biggest recent sales was the art collection of Catherine Blackwell, a Detroit school teacher who traveled 65 times to Africa and visited 50 countries. She collected hundreds of artifacts she used to enrich learning for her pupils and to help them understand the vastness and complexity of that continent.

The family interviewed four estate sale dealers before calling Bernard. He won the contract to sell her art, tribal clothing and household goods at her Sherwood Forest home because he had the greatest knowledge of African art. “We brought in an art curator who could explain the significance of each piece, so people investing $10,000 would know the authenticity of purchase.”

Not every house can warrant an estate sale. “I walk in the door and can tell in five minutes if it is worth taking a sale, are there enough goods at various price levels for people to purchase, is the neighborhood safe enough for my customers?” he says.

Bernard plans to do more to help customers who may find it difficult to sell their goods at an estate sale in their home. This fall he’s opening a consignment shop on Livernois, taking advantage of the burgeoning community and pedestrian focus of the Avenue of Fashion. “We can take people’s collections if they can’t sell them in their homes and showcase it for others.”

He also plans to offer seminars to help families prepare their houses for estate sales, gathering up valuable possessions and papers before a dealer arrives and setting potential prices for the collections they wish to unload. He suggests doing so before illness and death so the elder has say-so in the process.

What’s Bernard’s best tip for shoppers at estate sales? “If the price is too much, negotiate. If you can’t live without it, don’t wait, don’t sleep on it. A good portion of the time it will be gone and you’ll regret it.”

  Comcast Business Spotlight, minority businesses in Detroit