COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE
Real Estate and the Auction Industry Auctioneers weigh in on the challenges and opportunities of selling real estate By James Myers
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AUCTIONEERS.ORG
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n any given day, headlines about real estate shout about the hottest housing markets but also seem to fixate on multi-million-dollar celebrity homes up for sale. Lately, they're about trends that will hit the market in 2024. There is a lot of competition out there, and auctioneers are still scrambling to get the word out about the auction method and how it can work for sellers and buyers. But with investors with billions of dollars behind such companies as Zillow, Tricon Residential, Offerpad, and others snatching up properties and sometimes building entire subdivisions of homes, what does the future hold for real estate auctions? Mike Russo has 20-plus years in the real estate industry. He has worked for numerous companies, including Sotheby's realty brand. However, he's probably best known as the creator of SparkOffer, a new online offer platform for selling homes. He led a Conference & Show session about the future of real estate, opening a lively discussion about the strengths, weaknesses and opportunities auctioneers face today. "The future isn't the Millennials – the future is Generation Z," Russo said of the youthful generation, with a maximum age of 26, that seems hellbent on purchasing homes. "These kids are digital natives. They're fiercely independent and entrepreneurial. They question everything." And it looks like an uphill battle to sway the opinion of this generation and others. Russo and his company surveyed hundreds of people for their views about the auction process and real estate. Many consumers associate Auction.com with the auction process, and to that point, Russo showed a slide of a $400,000 home that sold for $148,000 on Auction.com. "When we interviewed the consumer and said, 'would you sell your home at auction?' they would say 'no, I wouldn't because that's for foreclosures.' Because that's what they see on the biggest portal (Auction.com)." Russo played a clip of a traditional auctioneer calling bids at a home sale in front of a crowd of potential buyers.
