REAL ESTATE LUXURY UP FOR AUCTION
By LINDA ROBERTSON The Miami Herald
A growing number of wealthy owners are turning to auctions to unload homes with expensive carrying costs.
The view from this Gables Club luxury condo's living area in Coral Gables, which is being put up for auction. PATRICK FARRELL / MIAMI HERALD STAFF
This luxury condo in Gables Club is being put up for auction by owner P.R. Steinfurth. PATRICK FARRELL / MIAMI HERALD STAFF
If you go The auction of the 7,500-square-foot Gables Club unit 12 A/C at 10 Edgewater Dr. in Coral Gables will take place at 7:30 p.m. Friday inside the condominium.
Bidder registration is required and the deadline is 5 p.m. Tuesday. There is no minimum bid, but a refundable deposit of $200,000 must be placed in escrow. The sale is final and settlement will occur within 30 days.
For more information, call Platinum Luxury Auctions at 1-800-262-5132 or 305-744-5220 or email at inquire@platinumluxuryauctions.com.
By LINDA ROBERTSON
What do you do with a 7,500-square-foot condominium with five bedrooms, five terraces, mahogany woodwork, a gym, a separate kitchen for staff and spectacular panoramic views of Biscayne Bay and the Miami skyline when you have already moved into an even more spectacular eight-acre oceanfront estate in Vero Beach?
In the case of a Miami businessman, put it up for auction.
Anyone who registers with a $200,000 refundable deposit can bid on the elegant unit inside the Gables Club tower on Edgewater Drive in Coral Gables, which has been for sale for $6.5 million for the better part of a year. When the gavel comes down next Friday, the seller must accept the winning bid, no matter how low.
“It’s unorthodox, but for today’s market, why not?” said owner P.R. Steinfurth. “It’s pretty much, good luck. But it’s easy and efficient. And it will be fun to watch.”
Steinfurth, 39, has chosen a method usually associated with foreclosed or seized properties. But he and a growing number of wealthy owners want a low-fuss process for unloading homes with expensive carrying costs rather than let them linger in a sluggish market. Taxes on the Gables Club unit cost $70,000, and the monthly condo fee is $4,900. It’s been for sale since March.
While the average home seller has to play the waiting game in a market that has been depressed since the bubble burst in 2008, the very rich can afford the risk of a loss and move into something bigger and better.
“Our typical client is somebody who is really wealthy, has little to no debt and wants to sell expeditiously rather than let it sit and get frustrated with buyers who seem to have the upper hand,” said Trayor Lesnock, president of Platinum Luxury Auctions of Miami. “The first advantage is certainty. Our sales are generally cash transactions.”
Lesnock, who has been in the auction business since 2005, said non-bank auctions — popular in Europe — are gaining steam in the United States. He is also handling the auction of Miami Heat forward Mike Miller’s $9 million, 10,000-square-foot Hillsboro Inlet home. Two others, a Brickell penthouse and a Miami Beach condo-hotel, will be auctioned soon. Two cardiologist brothers recently auctioned off their two oceanfront Golden Beach homes for about $11 million total and a distressed Star Island property went for $12.7 million in November.
“Sellers in the luxury market were less affected by the recession but certainly took a beating, too,” Lesnock said. “The difference is that if they purchased a $6 million home and now it’s worth $4 million, they don’t care. There’s no bank breathing down their neck.”
Steinfurth, CEO of the Styles Group, a real estate company in the apartment market, said he had mixed feelings about leaving his hometown of Miami, although he still works in Coconut Grove. He and his wife sought better schools and an outdoor lifestyle for their three children and found it in a dreamy, expansive, beachfront property on the Treasure Coast that cost nearly $12 million.
“I miss the trash chute,” Steinfurth said while looking out on Cocoplum Marina from the floor-to-ceiling windows in the 12th-floor unit he remodeled for $2 million in 2008. “We loved this building and got spoiled with condo living. We’ve gone from no maintenance to constant maintenance. But we enjoy being outside all the time. There’s only one TV in the house.”
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