Waterloo, IA Garage & Yard Sales: Frequency, Duration & Permits (2026)

Waterloo City Code section 3-4B-2 exempts certain secondhand goods sales from the secondhand goods dealer licensing article, and a residential yard, garage or moving sale only qualifies for that exemption when every one of five conditions is met: the sale happens on property occupied as a dwelling by the seller (or owned, rented or leased by a charitable or political organization), the items are owned by the occupant or seller, no single sale runs longer than 96 consecutive hours, no more than three such sales occur at that location in any rolling 12 month period, and none of the items were purchased for resale or received on consignment for resale.

A sale that exceeds the 96 hour window, exceeds three sales in 12 months, or includes goods bought or consigned for resale falls outside the exemption and instead exposes the seller to the secondhand goods dealer licensing requirements of article B, including the $50 annual fee, $2,000 bond and records register obligations in sections 3-4B-3 through 3-4B-6. The exemption sits alongside other carve-outs in the same section for secondhand books and magazines, licensed auctioneer sales, bulk merchant liquidation sales, farmers' market goods, and bona fide antique, used furniture or used clothing stores deriving 75 percent of revenue from those goods.