UrbanTurf, a DC area real estate e-newsletter and website, published this article highlighting the upcoming auctions at Ashmore at Germantown this weekend and The Mercer in Reston next weekend.  It will be interesting to see if the developers are successful at clearing out their remaining inventory or if they would have been better off just lowering the prices and continuing to sell normally.

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by Mark Wellborn | UrbanTurf.com

This weekend, DC-area residents will have the opportunity to get a $300,000 condo for just below half price.

On Sunday, at the Hilton in Rockville, the remaining condos at The Ashmore in Germantown will be auctioned off. The 400-unit development was built in 2006, and sits about 25 miles northwest of downtown DC. The starting bids for the auctioned units will be $140,000, a dramatic discount from their list prices. The prices they actually sell for, though, is of course based on how high the bidding goes.

The condos have been on the market for months and the developer, Fairfield Residential, has decided to cut its losses and auction off the remaining forty-five units in the development, a sign that builders are willing to resort to extreme measures to get rid of their existing inventory. (The Mercer at Reston Square is auctioning off its remaining inventory on November 23rd.)

The auction will operate rather simply. Those who wish to bid on properties will register, bid on the condo that they want and, if they are the winning bid, close on the condo within a month. The units have been open to the public for the last two weeks and will be open tomorrow, November 15th, from 11 am to 3 pm.

Potential bidders should not be fooled by the $140,000 price tags, though. The developer will only guarantee that 15 units will be sold subject to the minimum bid of $140,000 which means that just one-third of the units have a guaranteed minimum price of $140,000. A “reserve” has been placed on the rest of the units which means that the developer does not have to sell them below a certain price. In other words, even if a property starts out at $140,000, it can have a reserve price of $200,000 which means Fairfield will not sell it below that price. This information is available on the auction’s website.

Source: UrbanTurf. View Article.

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