Casino news source: TBO - http://www.tbo.com
Property Owners Take A Gamble On Auction At Casino
Skip directly to the full story.
By JAN HOLLINGSWORTH The Tampa Tribune
Published: Feb 25, 2007
TAMPA - Scores of gamblers gathered at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino on Saturday, but the name of the game was real estate, not roulette.
Alan Westfall was betting he could break even on a six-bedroom home he invested in right before the local market went south last year.
He hadn't counted on a swarm of bidders betting on a fire sale.
Of the first 10 properties on the auction block, Westfall said his two properties drew the highest bids - $215,000 for a 3,000-square-foot home in the golf course community of Heritage Isles; another $215,000 for 56 acres in Riverview.
"That doesn't make us feel any better," he said. Not when the mortgage on the Heritage Isles place is $150,000 more than that. Not when he was looking for $2.5 million on the parcel in Riverview.
Westfall, like many other hopeful sellers at the mass auction, didn't accept the offers. Each invested $2,500 per property toward advertising costs.
In the end, it paid off for many of them, auctioneer Jay Bailey said.
"It was weird and wonderful," he said of the event, where 46 properties went on the auction block.
At first, Bailey was disappointed - both with the crowd, which he said numbered less than 300, and with the bids.
The auction ended at 2:30 p.m., a couple of hours before the scheduled 5 p.m. close of bidding.
Then something strange happened, Bailey said. People started cutting deals.
"It's like they were trying to learn how to bid first. I think they reverted back to conventional real estate buying," he said.
Bailey, of Bailey's Real Estate and Estate Auctions, said he doesn't have a tally on Saturday's transactions. Several properties sold. The largest, a 453-acre tract in Levy County, sold for $5,000 per acre in an online bid - $4,000 more than the reserve, or minimum required by the seller.
Other contracts were hammered out after the auction. "We're in real negotiations now with 15 to 20 others," he said.
Bailey sees signs that people are ready to buy again and has scheduled another so-called Mega Auction at the Hard Rock for April 28.
"The auction business kind of died in the 80s," he said. "The people want it now, and I think it's going to be a very viable thing in the future."
Westfall is disappointed but hopeful as he considers his options and tries to regroup. "We tried the conventional way, then we tried the unconventional way. So what's next?"
Possibly a post-auction sale, Bailey said.
"A lot of times a property will sell within 14 days after it's had the exposure at the auction," he said.
Reporter Jan Hollingsworth can be reached at (813) 865-4436. |
|
