South Florida Home Auction Yields Few Results
In the cooling South Florida housing market, more and more sellers are counting on public auctions to move property. Case in point: the Great South Florida Real Estate Auction, held yesterday in Fort Lauderdale.
Wanda Brown arrived at the event excited to finally take out a Florida home loan and use it on a three-bedroom, two-bath single family home in the Breezeswept Park Estates in Plantation. However, she left disappointed when the winning bid for said house was $292,000.
“That’s overpriced,” said Brown, 48, a school board maintenance employee. “I know the houses in that area. It’s a nice area, but it’s no $300,000 house.”
Few deals finalized, prices set too high
Many potential homebuyers, realtors and speculators who attended the daylong auction of almost 100 properties shared Brown’s feelings. Some were also taken aback by the “as-is” contract terms they received in their registration packages.
But to Ben Stern, whose Synergy Group real estate firm owned the properties, the turnout meant South Florida’s housing market remains in a slump since sellers set prices high and buyers wait for those prices to be reduced. Who will bugde first, buyers or sellers?
Residential home auctions are becoming popular with sellers nationwide, as properties are taking longer to sell than in previous years. Demand for Florida home loans has been waning; and public auctions generated more than $14 billion in sales in 2005, according to the National Auctioneers Association.
Potential homebuyers hear the word auction and think “steals.” Many are left disappointed.
“The prices are what you would pay at market prices,” said Mary Parks, a Hallandale Beach speculator. “I expected better bargaining, and this is not. These aren’t bargains.”
Stern said the lowest winning bid was $86,000 for a Lake Worth house. The highest bid was about $600,000, for a Tamarac house.
Merly Grigou and her mother, of Plantation, were among the purchasers. Upon obtaining financing on a Florida home loan within one month, they’re set to walk away with a six-unit Fort Lauderdale apartment building on which they bid $522,000.
The issue remains: will sellers bring prices down in order to satisfy those who do wish to apply for a Florida mortgage loan, but can only afford a certain amount? Those wishing to be rid of property in South Florida will have to consider strategies that pay off for all parties.
