I was hooked the very first time I heard about a real estate auction. First of all, I am a consummate bargain hunter. Though I need nothing in this world, I trotted into Tuesday Morning as soon as it re-opened. Imagine how the prospect of getting a house for cheap energizes my blood?
But why do homes go to auction? To the seasoned real estate expert, it tells me the home was highly specialized for people with very specific tastes, or it was priced too high to begin with. It could also go to auction because the owners have a sudden change of heart, or fortune, and want to sell quickly. Or… and this is often the very rare reason, there is something wrong with the property. Not structurally, just something that makes it not, shall we say, popular.
For potential buyers, it’s great because an auction may mean this property is a deal. A steal! And yes, it really can be.
1. California Acreage Sells for a Steal
Case in point: Nearly 11 acres on the Santa Lucia Preserve overlooking coastal California, just south of Carmel-By-The-Sea. Heritage Auctions conducted a no-reserve auction for a 10.72-acre homesite in one of the most coveted places to live in the United States, the 18,000-acre natural refuge of Santa Lucia.
Nestled in these coastal foothills, there’s an exclusive community of just 300 homes built with mindfulness about nature and land. That means the homes spaced far enough apart that you never have to see a neighbor.
Lots like these go for a million, easy. But I’m kicking myself for not bidding because these 10+ acres sold at no-reserve auction for $154,000.
Read the story here:
Just as an aside, Dallas-based Heritage Auctions has been killing it with amazing luxury and architecturally significant properties for auction. We’ve covered several just in the past few months.
Last year, Heritage auctioned Frank Lloyd Wright’s last designed home, the Norman Lykes house, for $1.67 million.
So, we mentioned highly specialized homes going to auction. Let’s take the case of Champ D’Or up in Hickory Creek.
2. $72 Million Estate That Just Wouldn’t Sell
This colossal Denton County home was on the market for nine years and went through eight agents before it went to auction with Concierge Auctions in 2012, was purchased, and sold again at Concierge in 2017.
If you are new to Dallas, here is a quickie primer on what one news outlet dubbed the biggest little teardown in Texas. Modeled after Vaux-le-Vicomte, a chateau on the outskirts of Paris, Champ d’Or is located in Hickory Creek, just south of Denton off I-35E.
Originally built by CellStar Corp. founder Alan H. Goldfield and his wife, Shirley, the estate was known as Champ d’Or (or “Gold Field.”) The initial home offering was 48,000 square feet on 39 acres and asking price was $72 million. The Goldfields spent $52 million building it.
This home was more than highly specialized. It featured endless unique high-end amenities including a two-story mahogany library; a conservatory mimicking Tavern of the Green in New York City; an ornate theater complete with stage, screen, and a concession stand.
The home has two commercial elevators, multiple staircases, powder rooms and fireplaces; a master suite with a steam room inspired by “The Rat Pack,” hair salon, two-story Chanel-style “her” closet, two-story “his” closet, an indoor lap pool, and an exercise room off the huge master bathroom with heated towel drawers.
The third story holds a mirrored ballroom patterned after Versailles with complete kitchen plus separate powder rooms for the ladies and men; veranda seating alone for up to 450 people. There is a catering kitchen and a Butler’s pantry.
That’s perfect because it’s now a wedding venue called The Olana operated by Walters Wedding Estates.
Downstairs, on the lower level, there is a bowling alley, full racquetball court, garage for 20 cars, and a laundry room with commercial washer, dryer and bedding sheet press. There is also a full wine room and gift wrap room with storage. It doesn’t stop here: there is an outdoor pool and pool house, tennis court, and numerous patios and gardens.
Read all about it here:
Has a real estate agent — someone who sells homes day in day out as their chosen profession— ever sold their own home by auction? Why, yes! One of the most savvy agents in town sent his Uptown condo to auction as a first for the Tower Residences at Ritz Carlton.
3. The Tower Residences at Ritz Carlton Condo the First Ever for Auction
Allie Beth Allman’s Kyle Crews sold one of his own homes at auction recently because he wanted to make a clean break.
“We knew that bringing our own property to auction was not only the smart choice, but the best choice to enable us to sell on our timeline,” he says.
Crews has sold many homes by auction, from the Pittsburgh, Texas estate of the late Bo Pilgrim and his wife, Patty, (more on that later) to the Crespi Estate, to a gentleman’s ranch in East Texas, twice.
“I’ve partnered with Concierge Auctions as the listing agent on a number of properties over the last few years, incorporating their successful auction platform into my own selling strategy for clients of unique, high-end properties,” says Crews. “Some were difficult properties, but the company’s extensive world-wide marketing platform brought in clients and ultimately, buyers, from everywhere.”
From June 2020, here’s the scoop:
Speaking of specialized properties, I mentioned the estate of the late Bo Pilgrim, deliciously dubbed…
4. Cluckingham Palace, the Bo Pilgrim Estate
Now this is the big league way to market a luxury home: hop aboard a King Air 350, jet from Dallas to Mt. Pleasant, Texas in 18 minutes and head to 800 South Greer Blvd in Pittsburg, Texas.
That is exactly how a small group of agents and I traveled to tour the magnificent 18,327-square-foot estate of the late Lonnie “Bo” Pilgrim and his late wife, Patty. We travelled the way Mrs. Pilgrim did whenever she came into Dallas to shop at Neimans or Northpark.
The Pilgrims’ three children knew that selling such a highly specialized estate built on Bo’s chicken fortune — 43-plus acres more than 120 miles east of Dallas — would be a challenge, so they opted to put it up for auction with Concierge Auctions.
The mansion has six bedrooms, 10 and a half baths, exercise room, formals, quarters, media room, and chickens etched in every corner. Chiseled chickens in the elaborate ceiling molding trim, chickens on the kitchen tiles, chickens in the laundry room, chickens in the carpets, chickens in the filigrees.
There’s also a huge indoor swimming pool and spa that was patterned after the famous Greenbrier Spa in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.
“Mrs. Pilgrim visited the Greenbrier and phoned Richard Drummond Davis from the spa that she wanted their indoor pool to look just like the Greenbrier’s,” says listing agent Kyle Crews with Allie Beth Allman & Associates. Drummond Davis designed the home, built by Steve Thornton for an estimated $15 million in 1992-1993. The mansion and grounds are now valued at more than $8 million.
Read my tale of touring the Pilgrim estate, and yes, how they left me there.
5. Most Expensive Home in Dallas, At One Time the Nation
Finally, we come to Dallas’ biggest and most expensive home, the former Thomas O. Hicks estate and original Crespi estate on Walnut Hill Lane. Italian-born Dallas cotton trader Count Pio Crespi built the Italianate estate in 1938, commissioning world-renowned architect Maurice Fatio to design it. It was his final work.
For a while, the estate was the most expensive home in the U.S., listed, at one time, for $135 million with Douglas Newby. Allie Beth Allman got the listing in March 2015 and marketed it with a listing price of $100 million. By 2017, the asking price was lowered to $48.9 million.
Now, how big is big?
Starting in 2000, former Texas Rangers and Dallas Stars owner Tom Hicks spent years renovating the original estate and enlarging it to almost 29,000 square feet on 25.25 acres. Let that sink in.
The main house has seven bedrooms, plus three bedrooms for staff, 12 full baths, and five half baths. In addition, there’s a 3,347-square-foot, two-story guesthouse and a 4,836-square-foot entertainment pavilion with full theater, game room, commercial grade kitchen, his and hers locker rooms, pool, and spa.
The original master bedroom on the second floor was used as a guest room. The new master suite alone is over 3,000 square feet and includes his and her baths, dressing rooms, and massive closets.
How much did the lucky bidder pay? We know that Mehrdad Moayedi has an eye for amazing real estate, and he jumped on this one. For a property that was once listed for $135 million, Moayedi picked it up for $36.2 million.
Here’s what I wrote in 2015 when I toured Tom and Cinda Hick’s massive estate:
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