Last weekend I attended the Coastal Auction at the Marriott. I was amazed to see about 200 people there. There were about 60 properties on the block. The first two properties up were absolute. Two condos went for $70,000 and $74,000. That was probably not a bad price for either party. But from there the activity dropped. The auctioneers struggled to try and get bids of any kind on all sorts of properties. They resorted to asking for any kind of minimum bid and on some properties this did work; but for many that did not even bring in a bid. I heard only 7 properties actually sold out of the 60. I don't think the auctioneers were very happy with the result produced. They had spent over $100,000 in marketing and then also had the cost of the function itself. Bottom line is it helped many sellers find out what buyers thought of their property. I think there will be many more auctions, but I think that it will more likely be the Auction Company making what little money there is to be made. They get the sellers money upfront for advertising. And then the sales pay for the event and the profit. Seems to me the seller is best to go ahead and reduce the price of their property enough to get action rather than paying in advance for marketing that will still only produce a sale if it is at a steal price!

To find out the optimal price to ask for your property, visit my North Myrtle Beach Real Estate website and contact me.