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When buyers are bidders
Selling real estate at auction gains popularity in Fredericksburg area as property prices fluctuate
By LAURA MOYER
Date published: 4/30/2006
Duncan Van Ness thought his house in Louisa County should sell for about $350,000, but he wasn't sure he'd get that price.
Van Ness figured he would list the restored farmhouse on 22 acres the traditional way--with a Realtor, showings by appointment and maybe an open house or two.
But he happened across a magazine article about the growing popularity of buying and selling real estate at auction and thought, Why not?
He, his wife and baby son are moving to Hanover County to be closer to Van Ness' line of convenience stores and service stations in the Richmond area. If the house didn't sell at auction in the spring, Van Ness reasoned, he would have this summer to sell it traditionally while the Hanover home is being built.
On a sunny March day, auctioneer Danny Mastin of Mastin Auctions started the bidding considerably lower than the $350,000 Van Ness hoped to fetch.
Several people bid early, then dropped out, Van Ness recalled. Then it came down to two women who wanted the property for their horses.
The women raised the price past $400,000 before the bidding slowed. When it did, a new bidder stepped in and got the house for about $450,000 plus a 10 percent buyer's premium, bringing the total price to $495,000. (The buyer's premium pays the auctioneer, as a seller's commission pays a traditional Realtor.)
When Van Ness realized he'd net $450,000, he was tickled.
"I decided it was time to go get drunk and take advantage of myself, because I was a hundred thousand dollars richer," he said.
The buyer, who according to Van Ness owns several other rural properties in central Virginia, has agreed to let the family rent back until their new home is ready.
Not only did Van Ness get more than he expected for the property, he picked the day and time his house would be sold. And though bidders were welcome to preview the house before the sale, only two people did.
"You just don't get bombarded by people traipsing through your house and saying, 'I don't like those curtains '" Van Ness said.
That success story, auctioneer Mastin said, illustrates the advantages to a homeowner of selling unique properties at auction rather than through the traditional listing-and-showing method.
Date published: 4/30/2006
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