New York-based Concierge Auctions is set to conduct an auction of a four-bedroom house at 100 Via Del Lago in Palm Beach’s Estate Section May 22. Broker Nancy Mendel plans to sell the oceanfront home she herself owns with an auction with a minimum bid of $2.95 million. According to Concierge, it estimates a final sale price of between $3.85 and $4.35 million. Mandel lives in another home she owns on Palm Beach, and leases the Via Del Lago home, which had, at one point, been valued at $10.75 million. The auction will be live, and each bidder is required to prove $100,000 in funds in order to qualify. Phone bidding or by a representative is permitted, although the auction will not be public. According to Laura Brady, co-founder of Concierge, it is the first auction of a home in the Estate Section. [Palm Beach Daily News] Comments

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George Graham, the ex-managing director of Fortress’s Drawbridge Special Opportunities Fund, has joined Sotheby’s International Realty’s new luxury real estate auction group, Concierge Auctions. Concierge is hopeful that Graham’s history as a lender and investment banker will bring valuable relationships to the company, according to Fortune magazine. Graham will serve as CEO of the group, which was founded three years ago by a South Florida broker with the purpose of unloading properties that would otherwise not sell on the open market. “There is a pipeline of multimillion-dollar properties that are underwater,” Graham said. “In most of these areas the homes aren’t selling. There’s a multi-year supply.”

The number of homes sold under the gavel in South Florida jumped over
the past year, as auctions become a more acceptable method for
distressed buyers to move property in today’s real estate market. “I would say there has definitely been an increase [in auctions],” said Laura Brady,
president of Concierge Auctions, a Florida-based company whose principals have run
more than 100 residential real estate auctions in Florida over the past
two years. A massive Italian Renaissance-style estate on Coconut Palm Road in Boca
Raton owned by former H. Wayne Huizenga associate Richard Rochon, who
defaulted on the mortgage, exemplifies the luxury home bracket of the
auction market. Concierge Auctions reports that the home is now under
contract after the private auction July 11. Only bidders who presented
a $250,000 deposit were allowed into the event. Concierge will not
release the contract price until the transaction is closed, at the
owner’s request. [more]