Last weekend, one much bruited auction was held here in the Florida Panhandle. Properties offered ranged from luxury condos to vacant tracts of land. One prominent auction house had 15 different properties that went under the gavel.

How many properties sold out of all those offered? Not one.

So I was a bit nonplussed when I opened my email this Monday morning after to find a message from one of the prominent auction firms: “Agents, are you tired of your property not selling?”

The irony was inescapable.

While auctions have had a good run of popularity in the recent market, the fact is that more recent auctions have sorely lacked bidders. What bidders there are have grown very wary, each waiting for the other to bid.

Truth be told, auctions did not consistently deliver value to the Seller even in their recent heyday. One case that we encountered involved a luxury condo that was up for auctioned twice and did not sell on either occasion.  Of course, the auction company does not refund the marketing fee they have collected (ranging typically from about $3,000 to $10,000). The auction did not bring in the required amount, so the property did not sell. In a matter of a few weeks, La Florida sold a condominium that was approximately the same size in the same building. The sales price? Greater than the highest bid on the most recent auction–$1.895 million.

We wonder what will happen to those properties that don’t sell. In the eyes of the market, these unsold properties have been tainted by the abortive auction. The Sellers have significantly narrowed their choices of how to proceed.

It will be interesting to observe if auction companies change their business models to respond to increasingly knowledgeable Buyers and Sellers. Meanwhile, these companies might do well to consider the old saying: “The definition of true insanity is to do the same thing over and over again, and expect different results.”

Choctawhatchee Bay

Maybe it was the full moon or the approach of Halloween, but there was actually some good news about real estate markets and the economy published in the New York Times over the weekend.

Reporter Geraldine Fabrikant’s October 27^th article “As Housing in Florida Plummets, the Top Tier of the Market Just Dips” noted that despite a record number of foreclosures in the Sunshine State, the upper tier of the real estate market remains relatively immune to the correction. Fabrikant wrote, “Houses and condominiums with price tags of $1 million or more are still changing hands robustly in some of the most exclusive areas, though at a less brisk pace than a year ago.” (more…)

Neighborhood of Caribe

If you are a property owner who is not in any particular rush to sell your property, read no further. This is not meant for you. Skip down to the last paragraph of this blog.But if you’re one of the many owners out there who want – even need – to sell their property quickly, the best word of advice we can give you is: (more…)