Registration at the real estate auction
I am looking forward to my role as registrar, assisting registration at the real estate auction that OwnACondo.com is holding on Sunday, Nov. 8, at the Chicago Marriott Oak Brook hotel, 1401 W. 22nd St.
Prospective buyers, sellers and interested spectators are invited to join us at the 11 a.m. event, the first of many real estate auctions that OwnACondo.com plans to hold in the Chicago area and nationwide. I will be one of four registrars at the front table, taking names and other information from participants, so I invite you to stop by and say hello. Auctioneer Vinnie Zaffarano, the 2009 champion bid-caller in Illinois, is expected to put on a great show.
Registration at the real estate auction will begin at 9:30 a.m. and will continue until 11 a.m. People planning to bid should have their financing in place already and have inspected the properties that interest them. They will need to bring government- issued photo ID and a $2,500 cashier’s check or money order payable to themselves for each property on which they wish to bid. Winning bidders will then sign over the checks to the seller. A personal check would also be needed to make up the balance of the 5 percent buyer’s premium required, which will serve as earnest money.
We will also be gathering basic information from spectators in order to determine their level of interest in the event and the possibility that they will be bidding at future auctions. Prospective sellers might be interested in entering their property into one of our upcoming auctions.
As many as 22 properties will go on the auction block to be sold to the highest bidder. The process is likely to move very quickly so the auction could be over in an hour. You can literally buy a condo, your dream house, or even a nice piece of vacant land, and still catch the opening kickoff of the Bears game at noon. One of the many advantages of auctions is that qualified buyers and motivated sellers are assured of a closing in a short time as well, usually between 30 and 45 days.
During and after the registration at the real estate auction, I will also be chatting with winning buyers and other participants to see how they liked the auction experience and what we could do to improve it. We are expecting a great turnout for this inaugural event, and welcome input from participants that could help us make the next one even better.
Several upcoming real estate auctions are already planned, including two in the Chicago area, in January and March, and one in Miami in February.
Buying at Auctions
With the ever changing real estate market a centuries old process of buying and selling has resurfaced. Buying at Auctions are becoming one of the most attractive ways to buy real estate no matter if it is your primary residence, vacation home, or investment property. To many people in Chicago a real estate auction is foreign to their way of thinking regarding the purchase of their condo or home, but auctions have long been the primary means of buying real estate in other parts of the country, particularly the south. Auctions are the relatively simple process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bid, taking bids, and then selling the item to the winning bidder. The definition above is the basic auction form but there are several variations, including time limits, minimum or maximum limits on bid prices, and special rules for determining the winning bidder or sale price. Many times the participants may or may not know the identities or actions of the other bidders and they can participate in a variety of ways, such as by telephone, or internet.
Buying at auctions can be confusing unless you are familiar with the three different types of real estate auctions available to the general public. First, is the absolute auction which is what most of the public recognizes. This type of auction usually guarantees a lot of buyer excitement and participation due to the property sells to the highest bidder, regardless of price. Many sellers have begun to use this method since an absolute auction offers the best performance results of all. The second type of auction is the minimum bid. Auctioneers will only accept bids at or above the published minimum price. This format reduces the risk for the seller if the seller wants a set price and will not sell otherwise. The down side of this type of auction is a greater risk of setting an anticipated value. The last form of auction is the reserve auction which many people have some difficulty understanding. To make the definition as simple as possible the high bid becomes the offer, not the sale. Reserve auctions do not publish a minimum price and the seller reserves the right to accept or reject the highest bid, usually within a specified time. Sellers in this type of auction predetermine the sale price and are not obligated to sell other than at a price entirely acceptable to them.
Buying at Auctions have been around a long time because they are an effective and efficient way to sell real estate and meet the needs of the public. Auctions are entertaining and most people who have been come back again and again, so if you haven't yet attended an auction try it. I guarantee it will not be your last.
Nov. 8 Auction Can Beat the $8,000 Tax Credit Deadline
Time is almost up for first-time homebuyers to take advantage of an incredible benefit, but OwnACondo.com's Nov. 8 Auction can beat the $8,000 Tax Credit deadline.
“With a drop-deadline of Nov. 30, there’s really only once chance left to purchase---and close , which is part of the requirement---and that’s by attending the Chicago Real Estate Auction this coming Sunday,” says Brian Kuzdas, owner/founder of OwnACondo.com, the company presenting the event.
The auction will be held November 8, 2009 at 11 a.m. at the Chicago Marriott Oak Brook Hotel, 1401 West 22nd Street, Oak Brook, Illinois. Registration for buyers begins at 9:30 a.m.
Properties available at the auction will include condos, townhouses and single family homes, all of which are eligible in the federal tax credit program if used by the buyer as his or her primary residence. Buyers who have not owned a residence in the last three years are eligible for the tax credit. Other qualifications apply and with the calendar pages turning as fast as leaves are falling, it's important to remember that OwnAcondo.com's Nov. 8 Auction can beat the $8,000 Tax Credit deadline.
“Individuals and families who want to make this deadline and claim their tax credit of up to $8,000 need to act quickly,” Mr. Kuzdas explains. “Getting pre-qualified by a lender is a must, and we can offer referrals, if needed. Then, with financing approved, potential buyers should register with us as bidders, do an inspection of the property at an open house and attend the November 8th auction to bid.”
Every effort will be made to meet the Nov. 30 deadline to close. Professionals at mortgage companies, real estate offices and title companies are all on high alert with the deadline approaching quickly.
“Auctions are an accelerated way to bring buyers and sellers together under one roof at one event,” Mr. Kuzdas says, “and with the tax credit deadline so close, the word ‘accelerated’ has even more importance.
Consider these interesting facts, presented by the National Auctioneers Association (of which OwnACondo.com is a member):
- More than $58 billion in real estate was sold in 2008
- Within the next few years, 30 to 35 percent of all real estate sold nationally will be sold at auction.
The auction is open to anyone interested, with advance registration requirements for buyers and sellers. The auction process is exciting and fun, with great potential to land a great deal on a great home. Add the extra thrill and importance of knowing that OwnAcondo.com's Nov. 8 Auction can beat the $8,000 Tax Credit deadline!
More information about taking part can be obtained by visiting the OwnACondo.com website or calling 877-676-6300. Don't delay!
Accelerated Marketing Partners Auction
Accelerated Marketing Partners is conducting a real estate auction in Chicago on November 15th, 2009. The real estate auction will be held at 172 West Adams St at The W- Chicago City Center in Chicago, Illinois.
Accelerated Marketing Partners will be auctioning off forty condos with minimum bids starting from $99,000. The condos range in square feet from 580 all the way to 2,120, the largest condo to be auctioned off.
The starting time for the real estate auction in Chicago will be 1PM with a registration check in time of 12 noon. You can preview the units by going to 1250 S. Michigan Ave., suite A, Chicago, Illinois between October 21 to November 14th 11AM until 6PM. Valet parking is available in front of the building.
Many of the units are marked down more than 50% of original asking and selling prices as starting minimum bids.
To bid on any condo in an auction that is under the category of "minimum bid", you have to bid at least the dollar amount that the developer has put the minimum bid at. For instance if a condo was put up for auction at $200,000 value with a minimum bid of $100,000, that means that the bidding would start at $100,000. If no one bids at least $100,000, then the property gets taken out of the real estate auction and goes on to the next condominium. If someone does in fact bid the $100,000, then regardless of what the condo ends up selling for, the seller has to take that bid.
Minimum bid auctions are nice because the condos normally will at least attract the minimum bid price so everything in the auction will most likely sell. Minimum bid prices are normally put at approx 50% of the value of the condo.
Accelerated Marketing Partners also handled the selling of condos in the Vetro condominium complex at 601 S. Wells, Chicago, Illinois earlier in 2009.
Real Estate auction have grown in popularity as reported by the National Auctioneers Association. They've estimated that more than 30% of all sales of real estate by the year 2012 will be from real estate auctions. Real estate auctions when done right normally produce market value for both buyers and sellers. It's good ol' fashion buyers paying what they want for the property and sellers getting the best they can get that day. Real estate auctions are definitely here to stay.
Chicago real estate auctions
A Chicago real estate auction is announced this week by OwnACondo.com. OwnACondo.com is having a Chicago real estate auction on January 10, 2010, location to be announced. There will be approx fifty to seventy-five properties auctioned off at a location to be determined.
OwnACondo.com is conducting a real estate auction in Oak Brook on November 8, 2009 at the Oak Brook Marriott. Spectators, buyer and sellers are always welcome. The event will feature approx eight million dollars of real estate being auctioned off with a three acre parcel in Palos Park, two luxury homes in Oak Brook and several condos and townhouses throughout the entire Chicago metro area. All properties in the November auction will be "reserve". That allows the seller to accept or reject the highest offer.
Real estate auctions nationally have really picked up momentum and it appears that they're getting more and more popular with the amount of inventory that remains unsold throughout the United States. Banks have so much foreclosed product sitting in their REO portfolios and it doesn't appear to be lessening. The amount of foreclosures is expected to reach three million nationally in 2009, similar to 2008. That means more and more real estate inventory for the banks out there.
The banks can dispose of their property three ways. First they can list the product with a traditional real estate agency. This will take a lot of time and cost the bank money. The second way is to bundle the portfolio to an investor. This is a quick alternative for the bank but the amount of yield is low. Most investors want to buy at thirty and forty cents on the dollar.
The last method is the real estate auction. This will bring the bank the most money for the bang. The process is about ninety days long and then it comes to an end. Most buyers of auctions have to be qualified to purchase well in advance to purchasing. This gives the seller of a piece of real estate the assurance the deal will close when the buyer wins the bid.
To bid at an OwnACondo.com auction, you must bring in a $2,500 cashier's check, a personal check and a photo ID. Once you register, you'll receive a bidder's paddle with a number and you'll be able to take part in the Chicago real estate auction. Real Estate auctions can be a great way to sell property for both banks and individuals.
Auction A Condo
To auction a condo at our next real estate auction on November 8, 2009, it's best to think through all the scenarios on how a property is sold at auction.
There are three main ways the condominium can be put into the auction; absolute, minimum bid or reserve. The absolute auction means that the seller agrees to accept the highest bid on the property regardless of where the price ends up at. This is the riskiest of all for the seller but also creates the most attention and excitement. On almost every occasion, I've seen the property sell for more than market value because the property had so many potential customers looking at it because it was going absolute.
To auction a condo absolute, you have to e sure you can give free and clear title to the buyer regardless of the price it sells for. You can't put the condo in the real estate auction with a high mortgage amount and hope that the buyer exceeds the mortgage in the bidding. If the buyer comes in lower than the mortgage and the auction ends, you personally would have to come up with the difference to pay the rest of the mortgage amount off. The absolute is used in situations where the property is free and clear from any liens and mortgages or a developer has the ok from a bank to sell units absolute releasing a portion of their portfolio from the mortgage when a unit sells.
The second option is to sell reserve. The reserve auction is just the opposite of the absolute auction. The seller has the most protection. When the bidding ends, the seller has the right to reject or accept the high offer. If it turns out that the seller rejects the high offer, the seller remains in possession of the condo and can either keep it or begin remarketing it again. Many times this is a great way for a seller to test the market to see exactly what he or she can get for the condominium. Sellers love the reserve, buyers hate it. The lousy thing for the buyer is the process of emotionally getting attached, making a bid and then not knowing if it will be accepted or not. It's almost better knowing the price and just saying yes or no to it.
Minimum Bid auctions allow the seller to pick a price that when the bidding gets to that minimum bid level, the condo will then sell no matter what.
Rick Levin Real Estate Auction
I was at Rick Levin's real estate auction on Tuesday, September 15, 2009 at the Chicago Crown Plaza Hotel to witness the selling of two penthouse condominiums that were going to be auctioned off that night.
I arrived at the hotel at approximately six o'clock to check in and see the excitement of the event. Rick Levin was off to the side with his wife talking to customers and people were in the process of registering. The real estate auction started at 6:30PM with the announcer talking about all the rules and conditions of the event. That lasted about fifteen boring minutes and then the show began.
Rick Levin's auctions always seem to have a lot of excitement to them basically because of the great bid callers he hires and their assistants. Every auction I've gone to of his has had the same team and all of the players seem to really know what they're doing. They started with a practice round selling Wrigley Field in a mock auction to get the crowd buzzing and jumping, which worked well. And then it was time for the auction.
As I scanned the crowd, it appeared as if there were about fifty people prepared to bid Tuesday evening. The Rick Levin real estate auction was not only auctioning off penthouse condominiums in the Metropolis Property in Downtown Chicago, but parking spaces as well. The parking spaces were auctioned off first. The first parking space was sold at $24,000. The remaining spots went between seven thousand and ten thousand dollars.
Now it was time for the exciting part of the real estate auction; the auctioning off of the penthouses. We were told that they originally were priced at $1.5 million, but for the day of the event, there would be a possibility of taking them for a minimum bid price of $360,000 for penthouse A and $180,000 for penthouse B. As the bidding began, it was clear that only two couples were in the running. After is was all said and done, a lovely couple ended up getting both A&B for a total of $500,000.
The crowd dispersed soon after the penthouse sales and the Rick Levin real estate auction came to a close. I'm sure the couple who won the penthouses celebrated that evening. What an excellent buy on a great night in Chicago. As far as the sellers, they probably walked away not happy, but then again, they sold a condo product that was sitting on the market for a long time.
Real Estate Auctions
I went to a real estate auction recently and found that there were only about thirty people in the crowd bidding on the property. The product to bid on was actually quite nice and had a lot of value. So why so little people bidding on this evening at a real estate auction held in the Chicago area?
It really came down to the auction house that hosted the real estate auction. Real estate auctions can very well attended if enough of advertising exposes them. This particular real estate auction had very little advertising causing very few people to know about the auction. What happens then? Well, it ends up being a great auction for buyers. Without a lot of buyers in the room, the product really isn't bid on by a lot of people. If a minimum bid is hit and no other people bid, the buyer gets the real estate at that price. It's incredible for the buyer but a huge injustice to the condo seller.
So, seller beware at putting your property in an auction where the real estate company running the auction doesn't know what they're doing. You can end up selling your property for tens of thousands less than what you could have if you picked a different firm to represent you.
Real estate auctions can bring top dollar to a seller if there are enough of people that know about the product. In the end, it's all about advertising the properties and the event. I've seen properties pushed past market value because there was enough interest on the property. Why? Because the auction house advertised the auction the right way. If you are a seller, take the time to interview different auction real estate firms to decide which ones are the most recognized. Do they have the staff to handle handling the open houses before the auction itself? There's a lot of paperwork preparation that needs to be done. If the auction house is representing seventy-five properties before the auction, how will they staff your and will it be professionally done?
Every single real estate auction I went to this year had horrible seller representation. Ask many questions before listing your condominium in a real estate auction. It may possibly be the best way to sell your property right now but you have to make sure that it's marketed properly. That's the key. Maximum exposure.
Condo Auctions
Condo auctions, condo auctions. Is this how you want me to sell my condo? Condo auctions can get you a price for your condo higher and faster than just about any method of selling real estate. The auction brings buyers in droves to look at your property. The day of the event may have more than five hundred people bidding, but thousands came to look at the list of what is going to be auctioned. Your property is hyper magnified because so many people are looking at it in a short amount of time, roughly thousands in a three month time frame.
The condo auction will definitely sell your condo. The key question is at what price. Typically it is what people are willing to pay for it. And in the appraisal game, value for a real estate parcel is what people are willing to pay for it. So, if the condo sells at the auction, the price you got for it is fair market value. It's what people were willing to pay for it at a given moment in time. For those of you that do not trust this method of selling your real estate and fear that you'll sell it for less than what you think you can get selling it traditionally, start going to auctions to buy property. Become an avid auctioneer and stake out every auction running in Chicago. You'll see something that you probably didn't know and that is that most properties that are put in the auction sell. And I think you'd be surprised how much they actually sell for. I think it's a myth that you can get extraordinary deals at auctions. I find that the public can actually push the price for a condo the other way creating more money for the seller.
Condo auctions are usually held once a month. You can check with your local real tor or Google "condo auctions in Chicago". Start the process by going to these auctions as a spectator. It will only take a few minutes and you'll get swept up in the momentum and energy auctions carry with them. Hopefully you'll find yourself either buyer or selling in them. That's when the excitement is taken up to a whole new level.
Condo auctions will sell your condo, guaranteed, but at what price? Higher, lower or actually at market value? Usually it's the latter.
