Tuesday, October 17, 2006

No Miracles For House Auction Sellers

The Sacramento Bee has a follow-up to Sunday's auction article:

Auctioned homes' values are pounded
Gavel drops six times as bargain hunters bid below list prices.


At least six Sacramento-area homeowners who hired auctioneers to sell their houses are in escrow today after a dramatic live Sunday auction that also proved unable to sell six other homes. The results marked the region's first major venture into home auctions as a real estate downturn heads into its second year and the market slows under the weight of 15,000 unsold houses...

In the hotel conference room late Sunday afternoon, sellers and their families sat tensely as a staff dressed in formal wear unleashed a rapid-fire auction that lured buyers to offer bids in $10,000 increments. The homeowners whispered nervously, held hands over their mouths and sometimes shook their heads no as real estate agents probed them to consider flexibility in their minimum prices.

Buyers, meanwhile, largely exercised discipline as they sat up front and held to their limits. During the hourlong auction, it took only minutes to move some houses that previously had sat on the market for months. Six sellers accepted the highest bids, but there were no emotional bidding wars to make sellers' dreams of miracles come true...

Some bids were $100,000 under previous asking prices, reflecting the growing power of buyers in a market that sellers controlled for years...

...[One] house that sold had a high bid of $435,000 -- $100,000 below its listing price...

Seller John Chargin was among the half-dozen who declined to accept a high bid -- in his case, $450,000 for an Elk Grove home he listed at $549,950. But Chargin, who wants to sell the house quickly after relocating elsewhere in California, remains upbeat about his prospects. "I think I'm going to sell this house from this auction just from getting so many people through it," he said Monday. "There is no way in this market I would have gotten that many people, so we'll see."

Another house that didn't get the minimum Sunday carried a $470,000 listing price and a high bid of $360,000. Zillow.com and Reply.com value the house between $424,000 and $472,000.
Prior post here.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Chargin is dreaming.

What in the hell is he talking about?.

Chargin has relocated, so he's probably servcing debt on a non -occupied house. All you potential buyers out there for Chargin's home, he is probably desperate do bid 10K below last bid.

Anonymous said...

sellers are still in greedy denial phase. (well, some are)
I hope the greed sucks em down in a whirlpool of karma. like a flushing toilet.
bet they were smug on the equity shopping binge on the way up.
Bet they were smug @ the BMW dealer ... the harley dealer.
Time to pay the piper.
Enjoy that dish of cold crow!

Anonymous said...

Another house that didn't get the minimum Sunday carried a $470,000 listing price and a high bid of $360,000. Zillow.com and Reply.com value the house between $424,000 and $472,000.

I've been saying this for months. Gotta love the magic Zillownator!

People - your stuff is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it! Get it through your thick skull!

Karl Marx - no, you don't suppose, that all those high-end rides running round Roseville are due to the housing boom. Surely you jest.

(Can you detect the sarcasm?)

Anonymous said...

Its 2003 all over again.

What ever the joint was worth in 03 is what it is worth now!

Anonymous said...

rocklin renter

I grok you.

Anonymous said...

anon 2:16,true for today,but just wait 'til next year!

Anonymous said...

This house auction stuff is a big joke! I wouldn't waist my time and energy bidding on these over-priced cookie-cutter boxes. These owners shouldn't be allowed to put their homes on the auction block unless they sign a legally binding contract to accept the highest bid. This clown chargin sits back and puts these bidders through the effort of inspecting his shack and spending their valuable time on a Sunday to find out that he's decided he's not interested in the highest bid....WTF! He's nothing but a USER. He's still livin' in Bubble Land. I agree with Karl Marx Brothers....this guys a greedy m*****.

I agree, zillow is pretty good. But with a decade of bubble land on the table, how timely is zillow in updating their numbers to reflect the plunge in prices? I know some of their aerial maps are at least a year out of date. If the sales numbers are even 30 or 60 days tardy, then chargin's and other's houses are certainly worth much less....like 10-15% less.

Anonymous said...

Zillow is off way more than 15% in some places.

Case-in-point.

1401 McBride Drive, Roseville 95661

Current "Zestimate": $538,869

Last sale: 8/18/2006 $449,000

It took many price reductions and many months just to get the $449k. Either these buyers are stoked because of their instant $90,000 equity, or Zillow is pretty much worthless right now for valuations.

I'm pretty sure it's the latter.

Anonymous said...

What do you expect from a bunch of Dot Com Doofuses?

They think the net is the end all and be all.