A luxury family home in Calgary will be going up for auction, but the bidding won’t be for the faint of heart.
The 4,600 square foot home on 86 Clarendon Road in Collingwood in northwest Calgary, is listed for a hefty $3.88M but it’s had no takers in the past two and a half years, so the owners are looking to move ahead with a different strategy.
The home boasts a number of fantastic features, such as a gourmet kitchen, a wine cellar, a Guinness-themed bar along with an entertainment area as well as a breathtaking view of the mountains.
The agents in charge of the sale say the home is priced very well in the current market.
“The house is set up for entertaining with the openness of it,” said Mark Evernden with Engel & Völkers Real Estate. “Basically it’s a great, great entertaining area for guests and family.”
He says that the community is in transition and the home presents a good deal of access to amenities such as the downtown core, which is only about 15 minutes away.
Evernden says the owners are motivated to sell and believe that the auction, one of the services that Engel & Völkers provides through its partner company Concierge Auctions, will give them more control over the price they want.
“We are a global company so we have an extremely large platform. We are the largest connected real estate brokerage in the world.”
It will be the first time in nearly two decades that a single family luxury home goes on the auction block in Calgary.
The last time a luxury detached home went up for auction in Calgary was in June 2000, when a Mount Royal home sold for $2M.
“All the rest have been rural. They did do a condo last year here in Calgary but this is truly the first family home we are doing inside city limits.”
He says there’s already been interest from all over the world for the home.
“We advertise all over the world. So there are potential buyers. My understanding is we actually have some serious buyers from China and we have local serious buyers. We’re getting a multitude of global exposure so we are able to tap into all of those markets.”
Murray Lange, with Concierge Auctions, says that home is being marketed around the world ahead of the auction date.
“This is their chance to become comfortable with the home and the price that they’re prepared to pay. The registration process is actually really simple; they can register online. There is a deposit of $100,000, fully refundable; for the registration and we need to make sure that every bidder is qualified because there are no conditions in an auction.”
Lange says the auction process makes for a much more competitive and transparent sale of a home.
“There’s no negotiating. You’re competing against other people who are interested. It’s comforting as a buyer to know that you only need to pay one dollar more than the next highest bid. You never feel that you’ve overpaid for the property.”
Lange says that auctioning homes could become a lot more popular in Calgary, probably to the point where it could become the preferred method to sell a luxury home in the city.
“It’s just too efficient, too transparent for it to be denied,” Lange said. “If you have a home that is unique, it’s hard to value and if you test the market and don’t get the value you’re looking for, you have very limited options in terms of what to do next.”
Evernden says that the auction is unreserved, so he has no idea what the final price will be.
“We are obviously targeting to hit our list price, but the market will tell us at that time.”
He says that the owners will be really happy at the end of the auction because it gives them a definitive end to the chapter of their life so that they can move on.
“This is not a desperation sale, this is not a foreclosure. This is a ‘move on in life’ scenario. All the other six auctions I’ve done, it’s been the same scenario. They’ve done well with the sale of their properties and they’ve moved on in life and they had control over the sale.”
There were 35 homes sold for a million or more in Calgary last month, up from 28 in January 2017.
There are 495 homes listed at a million or more in the Calgary area, with the most expensive being ‘Terre Blanche’, an estate home in Rocky View County that’s listed at $15M.
The auction of the Collingwood home is on February 28. To register, you can visit the Concierge Auctions website.
(With files from Shaun Frenette)
