With two out-of-state visitors wanting to bid by phone and internet on these beautiful condo hotel suites near Disney World, we attended the World Quest auction on their behalf this weekend.

We were not expecting a good turnout based on pre-registration numbers but equally, we weren’t expecting to be told as we approached the marquee that the auction had been “postponed” due to lack of sufficient participation! I counted less than 30 people scattered around the vicinity and assumed they were obliged to sell at least one unit, however it seems they were under no obligation to sell anything at all.

Marcus Burke, broker of CondoMetropolis.com said, “This must be very disappointing for the developers. It’s a sad day in real estate when you can’t even get buyers to show up at an auction for rock bottom pricing.”

Part of the problem is that the developers are trying to sell a product that you just can’t get financing on today, and everyone knows it. “Even if they had gone ahead,” said Burke, “half would probably have fallen through anyway due to lack of financing. You really need to pay cash to stand a chance of closing on a condo hotel – and with a likely hammer price of over $200k it’s just a very hard product to shift right now.”

See also OBJ: Sept 12, 2008