Pittsburgh Homes Daily

Amid rumors of a slowing housing market, the recent auction of an old National City bank branch in Bethel Park was a seller’s dream!  With eleven bidders, the property sold for more than $1 million and the buyer doesn’t even know what he wants to do with the property, according to the Pittsburgh Business Times.

There seem to be two lessons here.  The first lesson is that a real estate auction may be an alternative means of selling a property.  The benefits of a real estate auction are that the property is sold quickly and that a competitive bidding situation can encourage higher prices. 

There are several real estate auctioneers in Pittsburgh.  Coldwell Banker has an auction division.  Hostetter Auctioneers does real estate. Although Harry Davis & Company does primarily industrial and commercial auctions, I see an occasional residential real estate auction there.  Ebay also has quite a few residential and commercial real estate auctions.  While there are always foreclosure resellers there, it appears to be gaining traction with higher ticket properties. 

The second lesson is, of course, that location still sells real estate.  The South Hills location brought eleven bidders because of a tight market and the value of the location.  The minimum bid was $600,000 and the property sold for over $1 million. Now that is a hot property!