Luxury broker Sky Sotheby's International Realty and J.P. King Auction Co. are teaming up to market luxury properties in Sarasota and Manatee counties through auctions.
As their first project, the two firms plan to conduct a multiple-property auction during the spring, said Craig King, president of J.P. King.
"We're in the process now of lining up homes and condominiums for our first sale," King said.
Auctions have become a more familiar phenomenon in Southwest Florida and the state as a whole with the cooling housing market. Some of the trend is an outgrowth of owners who need to move properties quickly while another driver is banks auctioning properties after foreclosure.
But the Sky-King effort involves high-end properties.
"It's the right time to begin using auctions for the sale of qualified high-end properties," said Chad Roffers, who founded Sky in 2004 with Bradyn Herbold. "We see this as a way for select sellers to differentiate their properties in a crowded marketplace, sell within a specific time period, and draw prospective buyers from a broader geographic area."
The spring auction will differ from recent multi-property sales in two major ways, King said.
"This will be the first multi-property sale in the area that focuses on the very high end of the market," King said. "Second, we will offer a number of properties at absolute auction, which consistently results in a larger turnout of bidders."
In exploring a potential alliance, both companies realized they had a great deal in common: serving the high-end market and using new technologies.
"You won't see any ordinary homes in this auction," Roffers said.
A J.P. King auction tends to bring nationwide attention to a home, King said.
"With an auction, you know when the property is going to sell, so you can market it more aggressively, sending out more brochures and advertising more extensively in national publications," King said.
After the initial multi-property auction, the two companies plan to market homes through single-property sales as well as multiple-property auctions.
"There's a large backlog of luxury homes and condominiums for sale throughout Florida, and J.P. King's auction method can allow us to draw buyers from throughout the nation and sell a number of homes at one time," Roffers said.
J.P. King recently sold mansions in Ponte Vedra Beach and St. Augustine, as well as 40 condos in the Tampa Bay area.
The Sky-King announcement was not the only recent auction-related development in the region.
DeCaro South Auctions has launched a local real estate auction business that handles properties one at a time. It is based at 677 N. Washington Blvd. in Sarasota and is being run by former Michael Saunders' Realtor Dudley Brown.
Naples-based DeCaro works as an exclusive auction division for many of the large brokerages in Florida.
You can check out Sky Sotheby's or J.P. King's auction services at www.jpking.com.
Source: Sarasota Herald Tribune