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.