Folio Building Selling Final Two Auction Units - Hoping to Sell Out By End Of November

The marketing team for the Folio Building, a 96-unit, predominantly residential, development on Broad Street in Boston's Financial District, began advertising units for preconstruction sale in mid-2004. At that time, investors were eager to purchase at this unique location, and sales took off as anticipated. However, with more luxury developments on the rise, and a slight increase in asking price (as well as other factors) unit sales at Folio came to a near screetching halt. As a result the developer decided that the easiest and most time efficient way to sell off the remaining 34 units was to resort to real estate sales tactics that have not been used since the last great market fluctuations took place in the late 1980's and early 1990's. The units were auctioned off at a one day event held at the Seaport Hotel, in which bidders were prepared to bid and purchase units in a live auction. In order to be an eligible bidder, one must have previously viewed each unit they were interested in and have, in-hand, a considerable deposit check to hand over if they happen to be one of the lucky winning bidders.

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The auction was an interesting event, where auctioneers would present the unit being auctioned off, the beginning price was announced, and bidders would raise there respective bidder I.D. card when a desired price tag was announced. In my opinion, it was crazy seeing such high-priced condos being sold so quickly, and many at very reasonable prices. It was almost as though valuable paintings or antiques were being auctioned off, not million dollar condos.

Throughout the auction, some units were recognizably more popular than others, several with more than a dozen separate parties bidding, and others with only a small handful of interested people. In the end, units sold for an average of about 26% less than the original asking price, or an average of $581 per square foot (down from $791 per square foot). One of the best deals (seemingly) was penthouse unit #1103. This 1,815 square-foot, 2-bedroom, 2.5-bath unit, was originally on the market for $1,610,000 and the opening auction price was $950,000. With few bidders interested in this unit, it ended up selling for only $70,000 more than the minimum asking price, or $1,020,000. Therefore the unit sold at a 37% discount off of the original asking price, and sold for $562 per square-foot (down from $887 per square-foot).

Originally, the auction was supposed to be for the sale of all of the 34 remaining units, however due to to a lack of interest in two of the units, they were eliminated from the auction right before the event took place. If you are one of the many investors who was once interested in the auction, or you happened to have missed the opportunity to acquire a unit at Folio, the sales and marketing team announced earlier this week that the remaining two units are now on the market. The first unit is unit #401, a 1,910 square-foot, 3-bedroom, 2.5-bath, fourth floor unit, with a current asking price of $825,000, down from the original asking price of $1.245 million. The other unit is unit #1102, an 1,664 square-foot, 2-bedroom, 2-bath penthouse unit. The current asking price for this unit is $925,000, down from the original asking price of $1.385 million. With the developer eager to sell, you may want to head over to the Folio and make an offer on one of these two remaining units, or contact us for more information on how we can help. The developer plans to have the building completely sold out by November 30th.