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8A —April 27 - May 10, 2018 — Spring Preview — M id A tlantic
Real Estate Journal
A uctioneer Auctions are the perfect forum tomatch varied buyers with properties in need of repurposing
Auctions bring out the entrepreneurs
A
s Sears and Toys R Us close their stores and their properties go up
for properties that have laid dormant for five, ten and even fifteen years. As the highest and best use for properties changes and the construction costs remain high, buyers are looking to re-purpose old retail stores into warehouse, distribution and multi-family. As an auctioneer at Max Spann Real Estate we have sold every type of real es- tate. Ten years ago we were sold dozens of bank branches. Banks had tried to sell them, but no other banks were open- ing branches, all of them were closing. Most of the buildings, like other bank branches were
well-built brick, on busy high- ways and in good shape. As they gave the properties to us to sell and we found ourselves finding a new breed of buyers. New entrepreneurs were con- verting them into restaurants, financial services, doctor and lawyer’s offices. We found out from exit interviews with these buyers, and not to our surprise, that many of themwe not in the market looking for a building and certainly not a bank branch. The only reason they looked further at the ad- vertisement and didn’t throw it in the garbage was because it said the word “Auction” on it.
They came to the open house, usually found a solid building and decided to repurpose it. We also found that not only did the word “Auction” put people not currently looking for property but it put people that were not currently look- ing in this geographic market into a place they would not have normally been shopping. A good example of this is that many of our buyers in our condominium sales were not in the currently in market look- ing for a Jersey Shore condo, but because they saw the word auction they drove down to Atlantic City, discovered the
views, the open-air pool, the fun restaurants close by and thus started the engagement process. Some of these people, had never vacationed in At- lantic City. They and their families for generations had vacationed in Ocean City, Seaside and Wildwood, they never thought about buying any place else. The similarities we see to- day are striking, for a recent Auction sale of seven dorms in eastern New Mexico. The bank had dropped the price, put new roofs on the property and put a ton of money in and could not find a buyer. We put the word “Auction” on it and had interest from California to Florida and Canada. The high bidder, from Brooklyn, would have never looked into buying dorms in Roswell, New Mexico. This also played out recently with a Mall Sale in Willing- boro, New Jersey. Prospects showed up wanting to contin- ue and expand retail, convert to Multi-family and of course the hottest use was for some type of warehouse and distri- bution center. It may wind up being all of those things. We also found that it is this unique buyer, the person that has a different idea for the property that has not over analyzed the situation, cal- culated the square foot price compared to every sale for the past three years and basi- cally talked themselves out of the property. It is this unique buyer, that has a passionate entrepreneurial spirit, a new idea, a hard work ethic and a will to succeed that end ends up buying the property. So as this market continues to evolve, I don’t expect to see too many more condominium projects to come to market and the banks have sold off most of their old branches. I do see retail malls, office buildings of all sizes and shapes that will be available to the new inves- tors. Especially the plethora of buildings in and around cities that are starting to rise as newer generations move back. It will be exciting to see how these out of the box thinkers reshape them into new vibrant millennial ready investments. Robert Dann is COO for Max Spann Real Estate & Auction Company. Dann is a Licensed Auctioneer and Broker in multiple states fromFlorida to Vermont.
for auction, owners are looking for to sell once p r o f i t a b l e ma l l s and finding few takers. Sell- ers are look- ing for out of
Robert Dann
the box thinkers to repurpose outdated and obsolete real es- tate buildings. In recent years we have seen an increase in the number of sellers turn- ing to the auction method
Buying or Selling? Call Max Spann for Accelerated Marketing Services & The Auction Advantage Visit Maxspann.com for more information on these and many more upcoming sales including: Office and Retail in NJ, Lots and Land in PA, and Redevelopment in the Mid Atlantic Region
Phone: (888) 735-9191 www.maxspann.com
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