Personal Property Team Lead
40 hrs/week- Pay begins at $22/hr but at 6 month review could increase to $25/hr. Employee in this role will receive 2-weeks paid vacation time, paid Thanksgiving/Christmas Day/ New Year’s Day, and 3 paid sick days.
Description
Employee appointed will assist with overseeing and executing various projects for estate sales and online auctions. In this role, you will work closely with team members to ensure that projects are completed on time and meet the highest quality standards for our clients and shopping base.
The successful candidate will be an excellent communicator, have strong leadership skills, work well independently and with a team, be highly organized, have a keen eye for detail, and provide exceptional customer service. They need to motivate and inspire team members to achieve project goals and ensure a positive working environment. Individuals who have a creative vision and have a knowledge base in antiques, vintage, art, jewelry, and the resell industry would be an exceptional addition to the Flipside team.
Responsibilities
Manage and oversee the planning, execution, and completion of various projects.
Estate Sale Projects - A client’s property is organized, staged, photographed, and inventoried in a standard of 1-3 days with a team based on volume and value. Estate Sales Specialist team members will be assigned to perform one or more of these tasks.
In order to relinquish some of the owner's personal involvement in order to shift focus on other administrative tasks and create a more flexible schedule, communication will be key. I will include the Estate Team Lead on introduction emails so that you will have direct access to project details, individual contract requirements, and the client’s contact information.
Team lead is always expected to be on location first and on time in order to greet the team and create a game plan for the day. There may be some times I (Jess) have consultations or other tasks like supply runs, shipping drop-offs, bank visits, etc that may cause me to be delayed. Ideally, a lockbox will be present on location for home access, if not, that will be communicated ahead of time.
Owner will attempt to take consultation videos and/or notes so you will have a greater understanding of the project pertaining to low vs. high volume, state of cleanliness of the home, how big the home is, what the contents are etc. so you have a pre-understanding to the project so team can hit the ground running on Day 1 of estate sale prep.
Top 5-10 Items will be discussed before prep day so we can make sure to prioritize those items via inventory process, marketing, photography, and marketing (estatesales.net listing, email, and social media).
Recognizing individuals from the team and their strengths; assign tasks that they excel in but also make note of what they may need more training or guidance on. Everyone has something to bring to the table but I think if we’re both taking the time to work with a specific individual one-on-one variously, we will see improvements in their work. I want to continue in 2026 creating a community at work where investing in employees and making the effort to improve brings more confidence in the tasks at hand and a stronger focus as a whole.
Team Lead will assist in designating other team members' roles and what tasks they are expected to perform and execute each day. Set a goal with individuals of what you would like to see accomplished by the end of day/project.
Lean in on Kendal’s (Project Manager/Consignment Team Lead/Lead Marketing) photography skills if she is assigned to the project as well. Once a home is staged or at least organized enough to begin photography for marketing purposes, communicate a plan of action to have photography completed and who will create the estatesales.net listing. This can be a joint effort as well where you divy up the responsibility of creating the listing and someone adding the photos in a timely manner.
Make a plan for email and social media marketing. You will have the opportunity to create videos and marketing material along with the team based on what sales are we pushing, what consignment items do we want to highlight, what other community events that we are part of. For social media purposes- what special/unique/high value items do we want to showcase? Tour of the home in process vs staged for the sale. What educational information can we be getting out to our following- this could be about a unique item/collection or our process (i.e. research, inventorying, cleaning, donation, trash removal, tox drop, estate vs. auction vs. consignment, sale days, post-sale tasks, day in the life of our team etc). We can create so much creative content as a team- it can be a lot for one or two people to constantly be coming up with fresh details and keep it churning weekly. I’d love it even if team members want to shoot a few videos of their favorite things at the end of each day and relay some details! As a team we create 3+ pieces of social media content for each property.
Supply responsibilities - take note at the end of each day/job that we are staying on top of supply count so we can be prepared to start the next day/week successfully! Do we need more tables, shelves, clothing racks, etc? Do we need to order more tags, dot stickers, jewelry bags, labels, etc for the next project?
Other tasks to assist with pre or during estate sale prep:
Printing household barcode tags according to the estimated volume amount of things at the sale.
Following up with clients with schedules, sale links, and progress of their project.
Sale signage is present/posted before the estate sale day.
Final walk-through inspection of inventory and tidiness.
Online Auctions - A client’s property (or curated collection of items transferred to the Flipside office/showroom) will be organized, lotted in a financially successful aspect, photographed, and packed up for customer pickup in a standard 1-3 days with a team. Team members will be assigned to perform one or more of these tasks. These projects will typically be split between Estate Sale Team Lead and Consignment Team Lead based on type of project - personal property vs curated.
The team lead will discuss the project at hand with me before processing so we can establish roles and the best plan of action.
Much like estate sale projects, online auction projects pertaining to personal properties- you will have the responsibility to make a plan of action for timeline and responsibilities with the team, keeping everyone on task, prioritizing marketable items for email and social media outlets, and daily supply inventory.
For curated online auctions based at the Flipside Showroom assist with lotting, researching, inventory management, and marketing tasks as needed.
Other tasks to assist with pre or during personal property auction prep:
Creating lot numbers on post-it notes with an estimate of lots, prioritizing furniture and high-value items. Divide numbers up and start tagging large objects that are sprinkled throughout the sale and the photographer can go ahead and start shooting.
Assign team members to tasks- measurement management and organizing like-items together and start prioritizing what will be included in the auction.
Separate out items that show damage or little to no value, compiling into one area for the client or for donation/trash pack up. For some large objects that are of lower value, it may be more beneficial to prioritize them towards the end of the sale- it may be more helpful for something to go for not a lot of money just to get it removed, otherwise it's more costly to deal with removing via trash or donation. These types of items will be selected on a case by case situation.
Assist with inventory management- writing brief descriptions of items including details on conditions and measurements.
Bagging and organizing small lots- we package things up for a smooth and quick removal for customer pickup day.
Keeping a tidy environment.
Post-auction prep tasks:
Uploading photos to auction site platform/editing descriptions/choosing categories/overall editing the back end of the sale.
Customer pickup:
Reminder texts for customers that have not replied back with their pickup times via email, arriving ahead of time to organize pre-determined pickup time invoices of customers that have replied to email/texts.
Making sure staff assigned to customer pickup day are watching customers removing their orders (so not to do damage to the property).
Pack up any remaining donation.
Coordinate with the trash removal team if scheduled to pick up items not designated for sale or donation.
Other tasks to consider in the future or during times where extra hours are needed:
Post-sale tasks training- understand the importance of a detailed eye after a sale is completed. Communicating with Post-Sale Team Lead (Jonathan) and final walk-through of the property after trash removal and deep/light cleaning tasks. Home should be cleared of EVERYTHING! Are ALL drawers, cabinets, and closets cleared? Have floors and baseboards been swept well in order to get the deep clean team prepped so they can focus on the important aspects? Is the fridge emptied? Is the garage/shed/basement etc swept out, are there spiderwebs on the walls? Does the glass on the front door look sparkling?
Is there trash in the driveway after the dumpster has been removed (or from the trash removal team breaking furniture in the driveway)? Are the trash receptacles full and need to be set out for trash day? - All these are tasks I go through on a weekly basis when we are dealing with clearout projects.
-Self enrichment learning- The main way I learned so much about a lot of things is because I did the research during my personal time. It's important in this field to know at least a little about a lot so you know how to attack a project sometimes quickly and efficiently. Take what you learn and apply it to how we can teach other team members or our followers by creating content for social media posts and reels. Topic suggestions: oil vs acrylic paintings, identifying metals (brass, bronze, steel, cast iron, wrought iron), identifying common wood grains (oak, walnut, mahogany, teak, cherry, pine, etc), common furniture styles (contemporary vs antique vs modern, victorian, french provincial, mid-century modern, craftsman/arts and crafts, art deco, post-modern- and then there are sub-categories of all those!) Identifying rugs- wool vs wool-silk blend, hand-knotted, loom-made, machine-made, Persian/Turkish/oriental, southwest (Navajo vs Mexico etc.). If you want to learn it, I probably have a book on it- just ask!
-Assist with keeping supplies organized - Sale prep and day of sale bins.
-Assist with keeping the showroom organized as needed making sure supplies are put back in designated areas, floors are being swept, my workspace is staying clear from projects and clutter, windows are being cleaned, bathrooms cleaned, noting shipping supplies as needed.
- Assist with staging showroom tasks as needed like floor sets, booth inventory staging and inventory management.
-There may be weekends where you might take over estate sale management and be the lead to conduct the sale so owner can take a weekend off occasionally!
* Employees are paid weekly on Fridays via Square. You will receive a W-2 to your email and a physical copy mailed in January. You will clock in and out on your own with Square Teams app.