Condo Auction

On Sunday I attended the Queen Anne High School condo auction held at the Hyatt hotel in downtown Seattle.

Converted into condominiums two years ago, Queen Anne High School Condominiums found its last 12 homes struggling to sell and buyers sitting on the sidelines hunting for deals and waiting for falling prices. The developer's decision to take the 12 remaining homes to Auction proved to be a smart move when they sold all 12 homes within about an hour. Yet did I mention that these winning buyers left with 26% - 40% off the last listed prices?

Kennedy Wilson Auction Group, (www.bidkw.com) a nationwide company founded in 1977, conducted the Auction. They created an intensified experience to move the crowd along very quickly. The conference room was filled with about 150 people all crammed in seats and along edges, however there seemed to only be about 50 who were actual pre-registered bidders.

A bidder was someone who not only registered with Kennedy Wilson prior to the event, but also who had already gone through a pre-approval process with a lender. They had to bring a cashier’s check for $2500 to the auction and be ready to hand over the remaining 3% down payment if they were a winning bidder. They had to have already filled out their purchase and sale agreement, minus the price of course, and were aware that they would not have the rights to an inspection or title review and would have to close within 30 days.

Some say that the final bid prices for these homes is an indication of where prices in the Seattle area need to be. I believe that these homes possibly represent a sampling of condos that might have been overpriced for quite a while and they ended up selling at a point where buyers felt compelled to buy because they got a below market value.