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About The Siuslaw news. (Florence, Lane County, Or.) 1960-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 21, 2020)
10A | SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2020 | SIUSLAW NEWS A trusted source in navigating transitions Cindy Wobbe Estate Sales focuses on the ethics of estate liquidations By Chantelle Meyer Siuslaw News A lthough she formalized her business in estate liquida- tion in the 2010s, Cindy Wob- be has been helping friends and neighbors with their estates for decades. “I had been doing some es- tate liquidations before, when I had the restaurant, as a lot of my customers needed it,” Wobbe said. “But I knew I was going to be phasing out of owning Mon Ami and I saw a real untapped need in the estate liquidation business. Back then, there wasn’t anybody in town who did what I do, and I wanted to transition into that.” Thus she formed Cindy Wob- be Estate Sales and opened a storefront at 498 Highway 101. With just a small team, she be- gan helping transition people through the sale of their hous- es and belongings, often help- ing them move into their next homes. “Particularly in the first few years that I started doing estate liquidations full time, a lot of my customers were people who I had known for many years through my restaurant, and I considered them part of my ex- tended family. I just wanted to be the one to help them through those transitions,” she said. Often, estate liquidation is a needed service after death or illness. Sometimes it’s to down- size, and sometimes it’s because people are moving away or into assisted living. “Those are really difficult transitions to make at times in your life when you are proba- bly the most vulnerable,” Wobbe noted. “I wanted to be the one in my community who helps peo- ple at those periods of time.” She found that the integrity and trust she maintained with her treasured clientele were es- sential to her business and inter- actions across the board. “It’s an industry that really re- quires the highest level of ethics. There are multiple opportuni- ties to take advantage of people — and people do. I just wanted to be the one who provided that service in my community, and for people I know.” In its years of service, Cindy Wobbe Estate Sales has added staff members and a moving team. When they take a contract, they work with people to pack their personal items and then they get going on the sale. They also clean the home and provide services as needed. Wobbe opened her first busi- ness in 1981. Since then, she has learned important lessons and adapted to changing times. This became evident this past Feb- ruary and March, when Oregon enacted safety mandates to pro- tect the pop- ulation from the novel coronavirus COVID-19. “We had to complete- ly recalibrate how to do b u s i n e s s ,” Wobbe said. “When we knew we were going into a lockdown situation, we kind of shut every- thing down and took a real hard look at how we could continue to provide service within the safety parameters that were being giv- en to us.” One of those methods was through online sales. Unlike many other people who had to learn brand-new techniques to market products and services online, Wobbe is familiar with several platforms, including hav- ing a large social media base. Another of her businesses, Toby and Max Jewelry, is primarily online. “We recalibrated Cindy Wob- be Estate Sales and have gone strictly to online sales,” she said. “Our processes, in terms of pro- cessing an estate, are pretty much the same, but the marketing and the actual physical liquidation of the contents of the home looks a little different now.” The estate company now op- erates through two main models. The first is a weekly Wednes- day online estate sale, which people can access through www. facebook.com/cindywobbeesta- tesales and by signing up for the newsletter at cindywobbeestates. com. “Those are typically pretty large whole house sales or a com- bination of two or three smaller homes,” Wobbe said. The second is a newer project called Top Picks. “Generally, this is our top 10 items every day,” she said. “That’s a way for us also to take on small- er estates that previously, before COVID, we couldn’t do.” According to Wobbe, having a whole crew move into home and do the physical work can be expensive. By using the vir- tual sales models, projects can get done quickly and efficiently under COVID-19 safety regula- tions. “It was one of the blessings, if you want to call it that, on the outset of recalibrating to our COVID model that we are able to help more people who have smaller valuation estates.” 2020 has also allowed Cin- dy Wobbe Estate Sales to high- light the crew’s work on staging homes. “We incorporated a whole menu of services. We’ll take a home and prep it for placing on the real estate market, and that includes staging a home to sell it,” Wobbe said. It’s a skill she has honed over 35 years. “Staging is very different than decorating. Staging is showcas- ing a home’s high points and cre- ating a story for a potential buy- er. And we are very successful at that.” When homeowners or real es- tate agents ask for these services, the homes for sale are often un- furnished and have odd layouts. Wobbe’s teams enter the home, utilize existing features, and sup- plement what is there with fur- nishings from the warehouse. “We stage it from top to bot- tom and shoot photographs and prepare those for online listings for realtors involved,” she said. “Then, when the house sells, we’ll clean it out and make sure it’s move-in ready.” Wobbe noted that in the stag- ing business, like the estate sale business, she can’t take every job that comes to her team. Staging, however, is crucial in some cir- cumstances. “When you have a great room concept in a home, you can’t always envision how to define those spaces,” she said. “When you have a designated living room, dining room, etc., it seems you know where the table goes. But not everybody can picture what life will look like and where can things go in a vacant house. So staging paints that picture for you. “And a vacant home lacks warmth,” she added. “Sometimes a home needs a personality.” Wobbe quoted statistics which show the importance of staging in helping a home sell faster and for more money. She gave the example of a home in the area that had been on the market for around six years. “One of the realtors we work with got the listing and asked us to come in and work our magic on it. And we did — and it sold in six days. Staging is what made the difference,” Wobbe said. “We worked from the outside in. We took care of the front of the house (the curb appeal), we re- painted and changed the dynam- ic of the home entirely. It made the difference.” The estate liquidation business has continued to give Wobbe and her team the opportunity to meet people and support them through life’s transitions. “It’s a fascinating occupation,” she said. “We have liquidated the estates of some people of signifi- cant notoriety.” In the last several years, the team has handled ve- hicles that were valued at $25 mil- lion or more, worked with expensive pieces of fine art and dealt with moon rocks and other artifacts from the Apollo space mission, that were then returned to NASA. “Certainly one of the most in- teresting estates I’ve worked on, and continue to work on, is the estate of Wilbur and Joyce Tern- yik. And the artifacts, particular- ly the Native American pieces, are a once in a lifetime estate op- portunity for me,” Wobbe said. The Ternyiks were prominent citizens in Florence, especially regarding the environment and local government. Wobbe has a special website dedicated to their collection at theternyikestate. com. “There’s no way I could have ever gone to college and gotten an education to prepare me for the work that we do. It’s really a continuous process of learning,” Wobbe said. One lesson that has become very clear since she moved to Florence in the 1990s is the need for comprehensive support for the area’s food insecure popula- tion. “In my work in the estate liqui- dation business, we come across a lot of needs in our community that are not met through other organizations or social services. It’s provided me with a window and access into that realm, and we’re able to meet those needs through The Good Deed Proj- ect.” Wobbe’s public support of or- ganizations like Florence Food Share began in 2001 with the Pounding, an event in its 20th year. From there, she began the community-funded 501c3 non- profit The Good Deed Project. Through private donors, the project gathers money to sup- port people’s needs, from prop- er nutrition for seniors and shut ins through the Soup Brigade to helping a student pay for needed orthodontics. “One of the things that I didn’t realize when I started in this business was the emotional toll it takes,” Wobbe said. “I think that it takes a certain level of empathy and an emotional commitment to do this kind of work.” This spirit is exemplified in her team, who are active partic- ipants in events around town, and all her businesses, which keep community service part of the culture. “You address suffering by rais- ing awareness and asking people to lean in and step up. That’s how you address these situations. … My crew here really steps up and volunteers a great deal on their own time to do those things,” she said. It is something Wobbe is thankful for, and part of her on- going tradition of giving thanks every day in November. “My gratitude lists are a public posting each day of something I’m grateful for,” she said. “I’ve been doing it for about eight years publicly. I love watching other people tag on and follow suit. And I mostly do it for me.; gratitude is also part of my per- sonal culture.” The past couple years have been difficult, as construc- tion of the Florence ReVision Streetscaping Project took place on Highway 101 in front of her storefront, followed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Has it been difficult to find things to be thankful for? “it is more challenging for me to discipline myself to do it because I am very taxed both physically and emotionally right now,” Wobbe said. “But actually finding things to be grateful for? No. I’m really clear on what I’m grateful for.” In addition, 2020 has so far been more about digging deeper. “My posts are not are not very superficial this year. In some ways, the material is easier to come up with because the super- ficial has sifted away,” she noted. “We know what’s really import- ant right now — our relation- ships and our time with people.” As the year begins to close out, people can look forward to seeing Cindy Wobbe Estate Sales’ iconic window displays, arranged by the staff for the hol- idays. “We’re sort of known for the front window Christmas dis- plays. … We’ve done some pretty spectacular ones — last year we did Christmas in Manhattan and the year before we did a beautiful Christmas in the woods. “I love those windows. They give me such an opportunity to showcase what we have.” While the storefront is oper- ating under COVID-19 hours, which can be confirmed on both Facebook and the website, it is still open to the public. “What’s in the showroom is what I call the ‘curated collec- tion,’” Wobbe said. “We have things ranging from pop art to antiques, and Native American and Civil War memorabilia. There are specialty items, finer jewelry and just cool stuff. … I say often, ‘My shop is the kind of shop I like to shop at.’” For more information about Cindy Wobbe Estate Sales and its services, go to www.face book.com/cindywobbeestate sales and cindywobbeestates. com.
