Foreclosed properties snapped up
Posted on Sunday, August 3, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/233166/
ROGERS — Sandy Stursma’s hands were shaking Saturday, more than an hour after she and her husband had the highest bid for a home in Bella Vista at a real estate auction.
“I didn’t think we’d get it,” Stursma said of the 3, 691 square-foot, four-bedroom house, which sits about two miles away from their home.
The couple’s $ 217, 000 offer settled a bidding war with Chuck Hagen, who sat dozens of rows behind the couple in a ballroom at the John Q. Hammons Center in Rogers. Auctioneer Paul Colvin Jr. raced up and down an aisle that ran the length of the ballroom taking their bids.
Hagen of Bella Vista admitted he was willing to pay as much as $ 220, 000 but changed his mind and ended his bidding at $ 216, 000.
Block Auction Co. and United Country Hendren & Associates hosted a foreclosure auction that because of its size was a rarity in Arkansas.
The event included 170 properties in Benton and Washington counties being sold by Arvest Bank.
A downturn in residential demand over the past couple of years has stalled many projects in Northwest Arkansas, leading to a saturation of homes and incomplete subdivisions in the region.
About 600 people attended the auction — the crowd was three times the size that Colvin had predicted — and the bidding lasted about four hours.
“It’s time in Benton County that the Seventh Commandment can be broken without going to hell,” Hagen said. “We’re all looking to make a steal.”
Internet bidding had closed Thursday. The highest Internet bid on each property was submitted as an absentee bid at Saturday’s live auction.
Most will know by next Thursday if they actually acquired the properties on which they bid because some offers may not have met minimum reserves set by the bank, Colvin said. Five of the properties were “absolute,” meaning there was no reserve set and they were sold with the top bids.
The auction would be successful if between 25 percent to 50 percent of the sales go through, Colvin said.
The Stursma’s $ 217, 000 bid was the second-highest made on 16 homes included in the auction. The lowest overall bid was $ 5, 500 on a house in Garfield, and the highest was $ 750, 000 for 45 lots in the Brookstone Woods subdivision in Goshen.
Jan Morriss’s knees bounced up and down as a United Country employee placed bids on her behalf for a 2, 211-square-foot condominium on Greenbriar Drive in Fayetteville. She had the highest bid at $ 180, 000, although initially she didn’t want to go higher than $ 175, 000.
“I asked for help because [the bidding ] went too fast for me,” she said.
Morriss said she was still in shock afterward, and she was beginning to worry whether Arvest would accept her offer. A professional real estate broker, she said she knew her bid was about $ 25, 000 less than market value.
Lisa Stubbs, a third-grade teacher in Springdale, came to the auction with family members, including in-laws. She wanted to gain experience as she and her husband would like to invest in rental properties.
“We’re just kind of overwhelmed,” she said, her eyes widening.
She joked that she was worried she would accidentally bid on something — right before her 5-year-old daughter Addison raised a bright yellow-faced program above her head.
“Honey, put that down,” she said, snatching the program out of her hands.
Buddy Blue of Rogers skipped out of a family reunion to be at the auction. He placed the highest bid on a lot in the Eagle Creek subdivision in Bentonville for $ 20, 000. Since that property was an absolute auction, he now owns it.
“I own the adjacent lot,” he said. “If I ever build there, it will be easier to do two at a time.”
Colvin said United Country likely will host more real estate auctions, but doubted they would be as large as Saturday’s. The crowd at the Hammons Center was ready to buy, he said.
“People’s hands went in the air, and we didn’t have to beg them for money,” he said. He thinks similar auctions will help correct the region’s overbuilt housing market. “It got people out, interested in properties,” he said. “We’ll have people going out and looking at these properties again.”
To contact this reporter: aotoole@arkansasonline. com