Louise Sunshine Is Bringing Auctions To New Development

Real estate auctions have historically been associated with troubled developers, one-of-a-kind mansions and languishing resales.

But a new partnership helmed by Louise Sunshine is trying to bridge the upsides of the auction market with the glitzy world of new development sales.

The real estate marketing guru and her son Paul are launching the Real Estate Investor Services division, a new development-focused arm of Concierge Auctions intended to complement traditional in-house marketing and sales for luxury developments.

Louise is joining Concierge full-time after resigning from Michael Shvo’s eponymous firm, which she joined in 2022 to oversee its residential sales and marketing efforts.

Founded in 2008, the auction house is majority-owned by real estate holding company Anywhere Real Estate and auction house Sotheby’s. Concierge counted $4 billion in sales last year and touts its international database of high-net-worth buyers and sellers.

Concierge claims the most expensive residence ever sold at auction, a Bel-Air estate called “The One”, which sold for $141 million in 2022. That property was once slated to list for $500 million after the home’s limited liability company defaulted on construction loans, according to the Journal.

Auctions have become more common in luxury real estate in recent years, but often usher in a lower price than hoped for by the sellers behind the high-end properties, the Wall Street Journal reported last year. An analysis by the outlet found homes sold by Concierge in the first nine months of 2024 sold for an average discount of 41 percent from the list prices.

But CEO Chad Roffers pointed to a gap in the market as a focus for the new development-specific division.

“We have more demand than inventory right now for ultra-luxury [and] luxury multi-family residences,” he said.

Teeing up sales

The appeal for developers — or their financial backers — lies in establishing a set timeline for a sale.

“We can cut a seller’s timeline to 60 days from three to five years,” Roffers said. “That’s invaluable.”

The auction market can be tapped at any point in the sales cycle, from launch through final closings, according to Paul, who said he envisions alternating the platform with traditional marketing methods for the same building.

“We can go from an accelerated sale to conventional marketing as needed by the developer, which sort of eliminates the developer’s risk,” Louise added.

Concierge will also provide developers a minimum price guarantee by pre-marketing units to its client list to solicit bids ahead of auction day. The firm takes an average of 8 percent buyer’s premium on top of the purchase price, according to its website, but incentivizes early bids by reducing that premium by half.

“The developer knows going into the process there is already a bid on the table that’s an acceptable price,” Roffers said, likening the process to work by an investment bank leading up to a company’s initial public offering.

Roffers, who declined to name specific developments working with Concierge, said he expects to auction the first new development inventory later this year when the firm has upcoming auctions in London, Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi and New York.