What’s a sure way to get free advertising for your new real estate development?
Put it up for auction.
Look at how much (free) press recent auctions have received, recently …
* Skyline Condominiums at Station Landing
* Folio
and, now
* Ironwood on the Green at Ferncroft
Who’s fooling who, though?
According to the Globe article, Skyline had sold 42 of its 127 units up until the auction. They sold 17 at the auction, and nine others to buyers they found through the auction or because of the (free) advertising it received, courtesy of the local newspapers.
And (contrary to what the Globe reports), only 15 of the 45 units at Ironwood will be sold at the auction.
This is a sweet deal for the developer.
The developer unloads some (but not all …) of its (less appealing) units at the auction, stimulates interest in its other units, ends up breaking even or making money.
It’s the time-cost analysis, right?
A developer can sell today, for less.
Or sell tomorrow (or never), for more.
From what I hear, the properties sold at last weekend’s auction were mostly crap. (BTW, contrary to what the Globe reports, the majority were not “Boston” homes, but properties in the suburbs.)
I have another question for you.
What sane person would buy in one of these projects, either at the auction or after it?
A single family home in a well-established neighborhood, maybe.
A condo in a building that no one else wanted to live in???
And in a project where only 1/3 are being sold at the auction?
What happens after that? How do you know who your neighbors will be? Or if you’ll have any, at all???
And how are you ever going to get back what you paid if your neighbor got his place for even less than you at the auction, or if the developer dumps the rest of the units on the market, next month?
Are you crazy???
(** This is not the first time I’ve noticed errors and/or omissions in Mr. Appelbaum’s stories. I think the editors over at the Globe need to do a better job of proofreading his/her articles …)
Auctioneer expects to return in ’08 – By By Binyamin Appelbaum, The Boston Globe
Ironwood Condos Go On Block – By Marita Thomas, GlobeSt.com
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