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Are Auctions the new “IT” Girl How about a Broad Street Mansion for $1
September 19th, 2007 categories: Olde Towne East, Real Estate News
The last two Sundays, this Gorgeous home on East Broad Street across from Franklin Park has been open for viewing in light of tonight’s auction. It is a tremendous showplace of a home. And, while it could use some updating and sprucing up, its Eight Bedrooms and eight baths could be yours for $1.00.
Of course, that’s up to the seller who has the final say over what selling price will be acceptable. The crowd will start the bidding somewhere and it’ll end somewhere, probably more than 500,000 X $1. It’s been mostly on the market for two years now, beginning in September 2005 for a whopping $1,425,000. The last list price was somewhere just shy of half that and, according to the MLS, it’s been in contract twice but fallen out both times. A single family home over on Long Street is also being auctioned tonight if you miss out on this.
Everyone has heard that Carlyle’s Watch will be auctioning off 35 of their unsold units at the end of next month and auctions in general seem to be popping up all over the place. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. Auction is not synonymous with screaming hot deal and homes often sell for more than they would have otherwise thanks to the frenzy. I’ve attended only a few real estate auctions over the years as anything close to a serious bidder myself, each time walking away surprised by how high the last bid was.
A quick check of the MLS remarks that contained the word ‘auction’ shows eleven active listings, 20 sold listings (31 last year, most very uninspiring) and nine expired or withdrawn listings. I know several that didn’t turn up and others that had auctions and didn’t receive an expected price and are still on the market. Of course those numbers don’t include the many homes that sell each Friday via the Franklin County Sheriff’s office. I think it’s safe to say that as our local inventory remains higher than usual and days on market tend to drag out, we’ll be seeing more and more auctions in the coming months.
The beauty and wonderment of an auction is seeing how it all turns out. I wonder who the next resident of this famous and historic property will be. A business maybe
Joe
September 27th, 2007
Update: 11 days later, the listing is still active and today it was jacked up $300,000 to $999,900. So, there you have it, auctions don’t always work out.