Jon Gollinger: Staging a better auction

From the April New York issue: Jon Gollinger does not want to be known as an auctioneer. And yet his company, Accelerated Marketing Partners, conducted 50 condominium auctions in cities around the United States last year, and it expects to hold some in New York City in the coming months. “We do real estate, not auctions, not liquidation,” said Gollinger, who sees his business as helping revive depressed markets. He notes that Accelerated devises a new marketing program for a building prior to an auction, which — if all goes according to plan — is supposed to spur sales post-auction as well. Condo auctions have become commonplace in nearly every region of the country aside from New York over the past few years, and Gollinger and other auctioneers are among a new breed of real estate professionals that haven’t been active here since the last downturn.