I showed up with my $25k knowing it was unlikely that I–or anyone else–would end up submitting a bid that was successful. For me the purpose was to survey the market, and to see if there would be any people willing to pay the ridiculous prices I was expecting. I had read that the reserve would be close to the bank loan amount, which was near %80 of the purchase price. This is why I knew there would be no “deals”.
The crowd was about 100+, but I would guess that there were only 25-35 bidders. The crowd makeup was heavy on the ethnic side (about 40% asian/indian and middle eastern), with most of the bidding done by a few ethnic families–especially this one Chinese family (Funny story about them: The main monkey who I imagine owns the auction company (Piratelli?) and two other guys would maneuever through the crowd trying to encite bidding. Also, let’s not forget about the token spotter who leaps forward and screams “YELP!!!” when he sees a hand go up. Anyway, in regards to the Chinese family, they were the high bid or runner up on a few homes. They did this becaue none of their previous bids were accepted as meeting the minimmum. During a stretch of about 4 homes–10 mins–the old guy is practically standing on top of the matriarch (older woman) of the family. He continues to work her over as she is one of the few people bidding. At one point when she is second in bidding on a home at around $800k, and this is what I thought was funny, he says, “I’ll even throw in some kim-chee”. Kim-chee is of course a Korean dish, like a pungent cabbage or radish. I know these people were Chinese because I heard them talking in Mandarin.).
I knew the auction was going to be a bust when he OPENED the first house-the biggest I think at 4600 some sqft at $1.5M. This elecited a small chuckle from me and a few others. He backed all the way down to $1M before getting ending up at $1.05M.
Quick Recap of high Bids:
sqft–price
4600–$1.05M
3700–$1.00M Great BY and View
4091–$1.1M Great BY and View
3384–$900k (1 bid)
3094–$700k-$900k “a little shy”–probably 100k or so off
3094–$700k-$825k
2812–$550k-$750k
2666–$750k
2461–$700k
2336–$700k
2506–$775k
2178–$775k
2775–$650k
Again, they did not accept any of the bids, but they did say some were close (maybe $100 or $200k would be my guess as to what close means), and they would negotiate with the high bidder. Some others had nice yards and views too. All the houses were extremely well appointed. No complaints there. According to them, 2 of the 16 in total that were to be sold are in escrow. I didn’t stick around for the last one.
Seeing this farse only convinced me further that things are going to get ugly. There were probably only about eight people who bid. The auction guys did their darndest to keep things lively, but it was a tough sale giving the prices they were trying to pull off. Hope this helps those who were curious.
Also, they usually started the bidding extremely high and then worked their way down, and then got bid up by a hair. A few houses in they just said who wants to start it and soebody shouted $500k. On a few homes were this or close to it was the starting bid, there was actually some action, but not nearly enough to get the prices they wanted. Never did they just start at $50k and move up. I would hardly call this an acution format outside of the crazy Mo’s screaming when a hand went up out and the typicaly fast tongued auctioneer.
