Tranzon Auction Properties - Real Estate Auction Blog

BELFAST (May 15): The owners of the Stinson Seafood property on the Belfast waterfront have announced a June 24 auction of the entire parcel.

The sale will be handled by Tranzon, the international auctioneers with an office in Portland. Spokesman Mike Carey said Thursday, May 15 that the sale will be subject to owner confirmation and is not a foreclosure or bankruptcy procedure.

The shiny new Footbridge stands in sharp contrast to the skeletal Wakeag Landing project to its south. (File Photo)

The firm plans to advertise regionally and nationally in both print and Internet outlets, he said.

Carey said Belfast Bridge LLC, the owners who planned to turn the former sardine plant into a multi-use complex called Wakeag Landing, have considered an auction of the property throughout the marketing campaign. “They feel they have taken the project as far as they can” Carey said, “and they want to pass it on to someone who will take it into the end zone.”

Though the real estate market is depressed nationally, “There’s a lot of excitement about Belfast,” Carey said. “You’re a small, quirky, funky town and you’re now reinventing yourself again. Now is the time to sell because now is the time to buy.”

The property was listed for $1.5 million before it was purchased by developer Tom Roberts and partners in 2004 and was last listed by a real estate agency for $3.1 million, Carey said.

The owners have not established a minimum price for the auction, he said.

The City Council last month extended the contract rezoning agreement that Roberts reached with the city in 2006 so it would be available to new owners. The agreement calls for construction of condominiums, retail spaces, a marina and boat-repair facility and a dock for local commercial fishermen.

City officials have reported continuing interest in the property by buyers.

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Nice piece in the Press Herald yesterday on Tranzon and Real Estate Auctions in general. We are busy right now - had two great sales today in Cushing and Belfast, have a bunch of sales coming up in the next 30 days - from our perspective the market is still open for business and yes there are deals to be had, but some buyers are fairly bullish and from my perspective - rightly so. Financing is available for people who maintained their credit ratings over the last 12 months and property values are falling - can they fall farther - maybe, but I doubt much more.
Portland Press Herald: Going Once, Twice, Sold - But is it a Bargain?

The three-bedroom, two-bath home in a new subdivision off Grammar Road in Sanford was assessed at almost $270,000, and three years ago it might have sold for even more.

But in today’s beaten-down real estate market, the house went into foreclosure before the developer finished construction or even installed a septic system. The mortgage holder, Bangor Savings Bank, held an auction, and in a scene that has been repeated hundreds of times this year in Maine, a small group of investors and would-be homeowners gathered in the rain outside the house last week to bid on the property.

Minutes after Tom Saturley of Tranzon Auction Properties in Portland opened the bidding at $50,000, the house was sold to an investor for $143,500.

These are busy times for those in the real estate auction industry, a business that can be seen as a reverse barometer of the real estate market, with activity rising when the market falls. A wave of foreclosures that has yet to peak is driving an increase in real estate auctions around the state. Several people in the industry say their business is up 20 percent to 30 percent from last year.

For those who are willing to venture into a buying process that requires some research, risk and persistence on the part of the purchaser, auctioneers say these sales can offer attractive opportunities for home buyers. However, some real estate agents caution that the competitive bidding that takes place at auction can also result in buyers getting caught up in the event and overpaying.

In any case, several Maine auctioneers said most of the people buying at auction these days are investors seeking to fix up bargain properties and resell them for profit.

“I’m seeing lots of investors I haven’t seen for two or three years,” said Stefan Keenan, of Keenan Auction Co. in South Portland. “They’re coming out because stuff is on sale, so to speak.”

AUCTIONS OFTEN JUST A FORMALITY

One thing a potential home buyer needs to know when looking at the long listings of auctions in almost any local newspaper these days is that most auctions are little more than legal formalities. They often take place in corporate boardrooms and are attended only by bankers and lawyers, although they are open to the public.

If the bank holding an overdue mortgage is a large, out-of-state corporation, the bank’s usual practice is to bid what it is owed and take possession of the property, according to Keenan. Though anyone could legally bid against the bank, the owners of most homes in the foreclosure process have little equity, so a buyer is unlikely to acquire a home at a bargain price this way.

Although most banks are not interested in being property owners, the larger institutions have what’s known as REO, or real estate owned, divisions that handle the sale of properties acquired through foreclosure. In most cases, the banks commission a real estate agent to market the properties, and they are listed for sale on the Multiple Listing Service.

It is the smaller, Maine-based banks that are more likely to try to speed up this process by holding an auction with the intention of selling the property. These banks may be more familiar with local markets and more flexible in their decisions about how to dispose of properties, Keenan said.

Buyers can tell the difference between an auction intended to sell a property and one that is only likely to result in the bank taking ownership by looking at the marketing effort behind an auction, said Mike Carey, with Tranzon. When banks want to make a sale, they will do more than take out a black-and-white listing in the classifieds. Typically, they hire an auction company to advertise and create informational brochures on the property.

Tranzon, which has 22 offices around the country, typically does about 100 auctions a year in Maine, Carey said. This year, the company has already completed 50.

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