Property Auction Blog

As the markets change focus, auctioneers also change, often concentrating in certain asset types at certain times. Williams & Williams out of Tulsa, OK has traditionally been an auctioneer for residential bank owned property. However in recent months they have aggressively pursued the commercial market auctioning off several assets including office buildings and land developments.

We have found that certain auctioneers tend to say that they specialize in the “auction process” more than any specific asset type.

RE/MAX Group Auctioneers out of Cartersville, GA is mixing it up next month with “Commercial, Residential, Land, Lots and Development Opportunities” throughout the state. Among the offerings is a 7 bedroom home and an office building. Certainly these cater to different types of buyers. They are offering the properties in both sealed bid format and on-site open outcry format. the auctions will take place over several days throughout October.

We’ve commented on this earlier this summer and now there has been a serious spike in not only absolute auctions but also the “all absolute” auctions. In these auctions all of the properties being offered are sold regardless of price to the highest bidder. Offering a few properties absolute or a small percentage of the total pool may not be enough anymore. Buyers want more and the auction community is responding.

Tranzon Asset Advisors out of Kentucky will offer all 18 residential lots for a lender at absolute auction in early October. The sale will take place on site in Missouri and is expected to be sell-out. The auctioneer is ahead of the curve working with the lender as opposed to the developer who is most likely either all or partially out of the picture.

Developer auctions have been a much tougher sell these days with little or no absolutes and published minimums that may not even appeal to today’s buyer. Some developers, however, are happy with their auctions even if they don’t have a complete sell out claiming that the exposure their project receives as a result of the auction marketing assists them in disposing more inventory in the “after auction” market.

Again, another post on a subject we covered not long ago- traditional brick and mortar auction firms assisting their clients in using online technology to get assets sold. Here’s a great a example: J. Duncan & Associates out of South Carolina will offer two lots at online auction only. The stated minimum bid auction will end on September 26th.

So yet another company will move to at least a partial online strategy for some clients. Benefits are many- the obvious being the auction day event which is pretty much out of the equation. Some also claim that the time to market is faster and marketing costs are lower but this is still up for discussion. We think you still need to advertise as hard if not more to drive the right buyers that will purchase in an online format.