Auction site offers online bidding of luxury homes with local team
An online auction site will feature a Tuscan-style luxury home in Burr Ridge during its March 18-20 online auction. The suggested opening bid is $1.25 million.
Such bids aren't unusual. The auction site, svnauctionworks.com, features high-end homes from Naperville, Downers Grove, Riverwoods and other suburbs.
Those homes have become eye candy to bidders, who must first register with the site before plunking down cash or provide proof of financing, The deals are also done with no contingencies, or any excuse that could derail a deal, said AuctionWorks President Diana M. Peterson of Glencoe.
“The sellers like the no-hassle approach because these are solid deals,” Peterson said.
AuctionWorks is owned by Chicago-based SVN AuctionWorks. The website has 3 employees and they can rely on 45 brokers at SVN Chicago Commercial to provide the residential and commercial properties for the online auction site.
Such online real estate auction sites aren't unusual. Auction.com and others offer sealed bidding for properties nationwide.
However, Peterson said her site offers a local real estate team that can help potential buyers with tours and personal service with reports and other information about the property. That information can be reviewed before a potential buyer makes a bid, she said.
The other auction sites “don't have the local connections like we do to sell those properties,” she said.
SVNAuctionWorks.com launched about a year ago and offers listings for all types of properties, sometimes as many as 90 properties at a time. Opening bids can range from $500,000 to several million dollars.
Buyers then pay a 5 percent premium as the site's fee. Sellers also pay the site a fee, depending on various factors involving the marketing and advertising strategies, she said.
SVNAuctionWorks.com also doesn't bid on the property on behalf of the seller just to keep raising the bids, she said.
“Sometimes this is the luxury home seller's first option, or it could be such a unique home that they priced it a certain way and it's too high and didn't sell. This offers them a way to sell it quickly and with no contingencies,” she said.
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