Real estate auction in Gig Harbor
I attended my first ever real estate auction yesterday. It wasn’t your typical show up at the court-house, quietly place your bid, and hope you win type of auction. This one was in the driveway of one of the homes being auctioned. There was an auctioneer from Texas or Oklahoma that liked to sound like Elmer Fudd in between calling out the prices (aba-dee, abba-dee, dadada, 75!). He had an assistant who was running around the crowd yelling like somebody kept goosing him (”Ha” “Hey” “Up”!). It was all quite exciting.
About 50-60 folks showed up to bid on two homes, one in University Place (over by Tacoma), the other was the site property here in Gig Harbor. I decided to bid to see if I could get a deal. I figured the UP house would be worth about $215,000 after you put about $35,000 into fixing it up. I thought if I could buy it for around $60k, that’d be a nice investment. It sold for $172,000. I figured the Gig Harbor home would be a nice move-up property if I could get it for around $300,000 (It’s probably worth about $425,000-$440,000). It sold for $353,000 to somebody who plans on living there, not making it an investment (imagine that…living in a home. WOW!). Both of these sales still need to be approved by the banks who own the homes, but seeing as how banks don’t like owning homes and they do like getting money, I’d guess they’ll take the offers.
It’s not fun knowing that folks are losing their homes. It is fun seeing people get great values on new homes. The auction itself was kind of fun. Lots of different people with different goals and different expectations of how the day would go. Some wanted to buy a home to “flip.” Others hoped to get a home to live in at a great deal. Others (like me) went to see if we could get lucky and catch a good deal. Others I think really thought they’d buy a house yesterday for $25k or $100k (the opening bids). It was interesting.
There are some great deals to be had in Gig Harbor real estate right now, even without Elmer Fudd stirring up your adrenaline. If you’re thinking of moving up, downsizing, or picking up some investment properties, let me know. I’d love to help.
