AUCTION ARTICLES

03.01.09
Forty units at the Fitz sold in less than 75 minutes!
Eleven million sold!

Rockville, MD (February 28, 2009) - The FITZ at Rockville Center sold all 40 of the units put up for auction Saturday in Rockville, Maryland.

Ken Deng, an employee on NIH’s main campus in Bethesda, was thrilled. “My wife, Hui and I were looking for our first home and we heard about the auction at The Fitz. We liked the prices and the idea of an auction. What an equitable and fair way to buy a home. We bought the model, which was listed for $439,000 and we paid only $339,000 for it. We are so excited to move in! The new first time buyer tax incentive was a big motivation too”.

Ken and 170 registered bidders vied for the condos conveniently located on the Metro in Rockville. This was the last of the 220 units available. The Fitz began selling in late 2005, at the height of the real estate craze, then stalled in 2008, after selling 170 units.

“This auction proved that when the product and price are right, there is still a very deep market” said Sue Hawkes, CEO of Velocity Marketing, the Boston firm responsible for Saturday’s event.

Metro D.C. is strong and the opportunity for buyers has never been better. “Over 1300 people previewed the community during the past 3 weeks” according to the developer, Rami Rosen, Marketing VP of Elad National Properties.

“We had over 5000 visits on the auction website. This project offered a great value and the market responded. In this market, you have to be proactive and recognize the challenges. Auction marketing was absolutely the right thing to do”.

Minimum bids at The Fitz began at 60% of the previously sold prices. Opening bids for a two bedroom home originally listed at $365,000, began at $219,000. A three bedroom, previously sold for $425,000, had a minimum bid of $239,000. The prices rose almost 30% over the minimum bids. As a result buyers ended up with a “discount” of 23% off the original price.

Overall, everyone was pleased, the happy new home owners and the developer who just sold $11 million dollars of product in one day!

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