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Vail Mountaineer
Saturday, April 11, 2009
SPRING SALE!
30% off entire store
Vail Village 479-8488 Going on till the hill closes (4/19)
A Must See Performance The
WMD
s
Friday & Saturday 479-0556
REAL ESTATE
High-end homes could hit the auction block Brokers say auctions ‘build excitement’ By Beth Potter Mountaineer Staff Writer A Beaver Creek homeowner is getting ready to put his multi-million dollar home up for auction. No, he’s not on the brink of foreclosure. Quite the opposite, says Amy Dorsey, his real estate broker at the Park Hyatt Slifer Smith & Frampton office in Beaver Creek. No, the homeowner in this luxe resort community has picked out a new home he wants in The Hamptons, and he’s wants to sell his home here so he can move, Dorsey says. “Auctions aren’t for every property owner, but if they’re in a hurry, it can be good,” Dorsey says. “A lot of people say it’s a bad thing for the market, but our European clients love it.” In fact, Slifer Smith & Frampton is opening a new auction division, with its first event slated for July, says Ric Souto, head of the new division and a real estate broker. It’s not the only real estate firm in the county to do so — Hoffman West Real Estate in Avon plans to hold its first auction on June 27 in connection with J.P. King Luxury Real Estate Auction Co. “It used to be thought of as a last resort, but that’s no longer the case,” Souto says of the auction mentality. “It’s an accelerated way to sell real estate. Figuratively speaking, it’s on steroids.” Several clients already have contacted Slifer about auctioning off their homes, although no one has signed a contract yet, Souto says. In general, the properties are over the $1 million mark; Hoffman West is targeting any property over $1.5 million. “I think the slow market has brought it to the fore-
front, but we’ve been thinking about this before the quote ‘slow market’ became what it is,” Souto says. The number of real estate auctions is on the rise across the country as the economy has slowed in recent months. But while an auction in Denver recently listed more than 200 homes for sale at all price ranges, luxury homes usually are auctioned off one at a time. Both Slifer and Hoffman West plan to market two to five homes per auction, maybe more. With 223 singlefamily homes above $2 million on the market right now in Eagle County, it appears there is plenty of inventory. “There’s an excitement about auctions,” says Terry Hoffman, co-owner of Hoffman West. “If you think buyers have gone silent, the auction will tell you if they have or not and how the market is trending.” Eagle County real estate sales have slowed down in recent months, although February saw 16 percent more sales at prices 29 percent higher than January, according to statistics released April 6 from Land Title Guarantee Co. in Eagle. Prices for homes that are selling appear to be all over the map — February’s average home sale price was $1.6 million, according to Land Title. Real estate auctions certainly are not new, but they have been relatively rare in resort communities, says Byron Koste, director of the University of Colorado Real Estate Center. Places like California and Arizona have hosted regular auctions over the last year or so, he said. “We like to believe we’re above the fray,” Koste says. “It just has taken longer to get here because we have been hit less heavily by the downturn.” Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, sees the auctions more as a real estate broker marketing tool. “Real estate is an entrepreneurial business, so it’s not surprising that they’ll use a non-traditional method to market properties,” Yun says. “And until the credit market loosens up, overall, cash is king.”
Knock Your Socks Off
SALE
Thurs.-Sat., April 9-11 Take an additional 20% off the already SUPER LOW prices and save up to
80 ! %
949-0989
222 Chapel Place Avon