From the photos, the 1950s rancher looked to be in excellent well-maintained condition. I could tell by the clean red-brick exterior and the neatly landscaped lawn. Someone had taken special care of this home.
The photos were on the website of one of my favorite auction houses. A large chunk of this firm’s business is house sales. At any given time, it has two or three a week. I never looked very closely at them (I’m already buying a house), but I would show up sometimes to check out the contents. A month or so ago, the firm auctioned the house and belongings of a couple who had sold antiques for 50 years. The house was still loaded with items.
Last weekend, I decided to not only check out the contents – a lot of which were dusty toy trucks in the basement, along with a ventriloquist doll – but to observe the auctioning of the house itself. It took only about 20 to 30 minutes to sell the property, with most of the time spent on legalities of the sale.
The house was on a quiet street in a lovely neighborhood, and even better, it overlooked a small park. A daughter-in-law, a very friendly woman with short dark hair, was the only family member on-site. Her husband grew up in the house, she said, and couldn’t bear to be there. “It’s hard to let go,” she said. “My husband can’t come back to it.”
The house was built “by hand” in 1952 by his father, who owned his own construction company. They weren’t sure if the auction was the way to go, she said, but they didn’t want to take the conventional route.
Selling at auction is apparently becoming pretty popular. An article at CNNMoney.com last month noted that residential property sold at auction had increased nearly 50 percent from 2003 to 2008. In Googling, I found that although auction houses may have some of their own rules for such sales, they generally followed accepted real-estate practices.
At last weekend’s auction, the auctioneer spelled out specific rules to bidders, including one that the seller gets to accept or reject the bid, among other things. All written down and apparently repeated before each auction.
I also found several websites stating that selling this way can be quicker than going conventional. There are obvious costs involved as in any real estate sale, including in this case the 10 percent premium to the auction house. It’s a good idea to call the auction house to get all the details beforehand, check out comparable sales in the area and do your research online and offline.
I came across this YouTube video from Hilarie Manion, an auctioneer out of Wheeling, W.VA., who calls herself the Auction Gal. Although she’s promoting her service on the video, she does a good job of explaining how the auctions work.
The 4-bedroom, 3 ½-bath house from last weekend was just as pristine inside as outside. The original textured beige carpeting was just about as clean as it was when it was installed (They had it cleaned every year, the daughter-in-law said). The kitchen had new appliances, but it needed an upgrade, along with the bathrooms. Knocking down a few walls would open up and modernize the flow of the house.
It had a sunroom, front and back porches, formal dining room and cedar closets. The basement appeared to be the only room that had not been well-tended: It was dusty and damp and ill-lighted.
The house was on a double lot that extended far into the backyard, with a wooden shed painted red, fully grown trees, a clothes line and no fences. The double lot was 11,700 square feet.
The taxes? $13,000, Wow! That’s somebody’s yearly salary.
As I was walking up the driveway to the rancher, I noticed the house next door. The front porch of that red-brick house was bordered by tall white Georgian columns. On the ceiling hung a beautiful cylindrical metal scrollwork chandelier. The daughter-in-law mentioned that the house had been a convent when her husband was growing up. The nuns would come over at Christmas time to watch him open his gifts, she said. The house, all 26 rooms, was now privately owned.
The auction of the family’s home came at the end of the sale of the contents, which went remarkably quicker than most auctions. Bidders had to produce proof of a $5,000 deposit on the property in order to bid. About 12-15 people surrounded the auctioneer in the living room.
He asked someone to throw out a beginning bid. $100,000, someone offered. The auctioneer went up to $200,000. Another person took that bid. And, I thought, the bidding was off and running.
Then it stalled when the auctioneer tried for $300,000. He dropped it to $250,000 and one of the two bidders took it. For the next few minutes, the auctioneer tried to coax another $25,000 from the bidders, but the price just hung there like an unanswered question. Finally, he stopped the bidding at $250,000.
I expected the house to go for more, but in checking comparables in the area via the internet later, I found prices between $250,000 and $300,000. I guess the bidders had checked, too.
Now, it’s up to the family. Will they take the offer? I’m sure they want to get it over with. Selling a house can be an exhausting experience.
Postscript: The auctioneer told me a week later that the house sold for a little more than the bid. That likely means the family offered a counterbid and both sides settled on a price. The auctioneer said that he, too, had expected to house to sell for more.
