Sorry for delay. Left town Friday but had 3 people at the auction. Let me clarify that I was not there so am getting second hand and paraphrasing. They said there was about 150 people there. All 3 said it was embarassing. That the auctioneer actually stopped one and said that he wouldn't let the seller take the offered price or something like that. I was told that they explained all the rules of the auction up front but didn't mention the appraisal issue and of course said they were "as is". Was told that they did address the doc stamps, title policy issue and at one point told buyers that some or all of these costs would be paid by the seller for all of the auctions but then they took it back and said buyer pays them.
High can clarify if he wants.
Also was told that the seller has 3 days to decide if the bid will be taken so as Franny said, even if it "sells" at auction, it may not be sold. Just as everyone has reported, I was told that bids were ridiculous, when they got them (about 50%). 2 of my people were there for several hours and said only 3 out of about 18 properties had been "sold" (don't know what to call it since they probably won't take the offer) . Those 3 were the beachfront lot and seacrest lots.
Only 2 of the lots on Trigger Trail were entered into the MLS after they were subdivided (lots 5&6) and looks like the owner, (both owned by same person )paid $295 per lot in 4/04 so I can't imagine him taking the $185K offer. If I remember correctly, I was looking at those lots before they were released and the agent told me that they were going to be much higher than $295 so I wouldn't be surprised if all 4 lots are owned by the same person. The county records still doesn't have a card on them. Wasn't somebody just saying how up to date the county records are? These are 2 year old sales!
In speaking to one of my clients, he indicated that he was under the impression that the seller does pay something for the attempted auction in addition to the buyer's 10% fee.
Can anybody tell us if this is true? High? Baby Blue? Am truly interested.
I would assume that someone had significant expenses putting the auction on so it would make sense that the seller would have to pay expenses of some sorts.
When I asked one of my people to give me an honest answer regarding whether he would buy at an auction like that after having seen it - he said no, prices were about the same as listed.
When I asked if he would sell one through an auction, he also said no, it was a waste of time and would just tick him off.
So it doesn't sound like it was very successful at all but the good news is people showed up and are still interested in the area, they just want to get in for less than our values are right now. Any developers out there? Affordable family housing! They keep building them nicer and nicer with hugh sq footage, elevators etc. I certainly dont mind but it's looking like the VERY wealthy will be the ones buying South Walton in the future. Does that make those of us who own very wealthy?