Auto Auction Action

Fall's here: snow is sneaking in with the rain and hail and swirling leaves.

For old car buffs in northern climes, it's time to call the insurer and pull the liability coverage, fuel it up and tuck in their spoiled babes for their wintertime hibernation.

But you can still dream about next year's ride.

Keeping that thought alive, last weekend I took in the Toronto International Fall Classic Car Auction at the International Convention Centre near Pearson International Airport. This was one of 13 auctions Chatham, Ontario-based RM Restorations and Classic Cars is holding across Canada and the US this year.


1970 Charger R/T $125,000 high bid, no sale

The show attracted several thousand visitors. Some bidders. But mostly just dreamers and metaphorical tire kickers. Altogether, more than 400 vehicles were on the block--from a clunker '86 Audi 100LS that had to be pushed up the ramp, but still sold for $1,512, to fully-restored '57 Chevies. At the top of the heap sat a Ferrari 360 Modena F1 on which the seller turned down $150,000. The top price actually accepted was $152,280 for a 1967 Chevrolet Corvette Roadster.

"Give me fifty, fifty,fifty,fifty,fifty,fifty,fifty one here, fifty one here! fifty one here! "

The auctioneers are as fast and furious and you'd expect. Three at a time, with action constantly shifting,one to another. At least three spotters. Add a couple of dozen roadies, gloved and sturdy, pushing the cars towards the auctioneer's ramp and sometimes up to the display when balky engines refuse to fire. Near the auctioneers are several roving agents, communicating with their principal car collectors by cell phone.

1937 Supercharged Cord Sold for $149,040

Two huge screens on either side display the vehicle's year and model and the rising price increments in both Canadian and US dollars. (All figures here are C$.) The display: "SOLD" Or more often, blank, indicating "no sale".



'65 Mustang GT 350 clone. Sold, $28,890

As in any auction, vehicles are sold "reserve" or "without reserve". Reserve simply means sellers set a price below which they won't go, no matter what the "bid." Naturally, the reserve is a secret between seller and the auctioneers. "Without reserve" means the seller has to take the best price, regardless. It's a game of chicken. Who's going to give in first? When the bidding gets close to the hidden reserve price, the sellers often signal "without reserve" , hoping for a burst of bidding to sweeten their pot. As each vehicle slowly rolls down the stand, the auctioneers keep the patter up: "This is a car that you're not going to have to do anything with. It was completely restored last year. In Montreal, we'd have sold it for $100,000 easily. Last chance to own this one of a kind...."

Sometimes it works and bids start rolling in, especially if the magic words "Without Reserve" start flashing. An immaculate black 1970 Dodge Charger RT 383 was snapped up on the roll off the ramp. Sold! $48,600 Later, we learned that the seller had dropped the reserve to $39,000 during the bidding and was tickled to get the $9,600 bonus.


1954 Corvette Roadster Sold $89,100

Sold vehicles are parked again in the exhibit area till their new owners remove them. Those not sold remain, usually with an asking price on the windshield. Often, the neatly printed price is scratched out and a scribbled lower one chopping off $5,000-$10,00 takes its place.

Whatever the selling price, RM makes money coming and going. Seller's pay a 5% premium and buyer's 8%. This is on top of any applicable taxes. As well, RM charges to register each vehicle and a further approximately $300 for behind the chains treatment. (In practice, the chains are soon on the floor and the hoi polloi are wandering around everywhere.) The exception: one-on-one chain surround. A concours quality 1951 black Mercury was afforded this star treatment, complete with a serious-looking leatherclad 6'6" minder. The Merc's windshield said $115,000, well above the best bid of $94,000.


1956 Chevrolet Belair, sold $102,600 '57s no longer rule the roost

Admission was $20 for adults, children under 12 free. The Toronto auction recorded over $3,000,000 in sales. But this is mere beer money compared to some of the high-stakes auctions RM runs. Consider its Monterey, California auction in August, where the top ten priced cars reaped more than US$18.5 million dollars for their owners. Admission to the bidding alone was only by catalogue purchase of $80.

Photos: Goldie-Anne Weiss

Here a Million, There a Million

So you think you got a million dollar home in Toronto? You're not alone.

As of October 5, there were 1,223 properties in the TREB MLS system listed for more than $1 million. That's 6.3% of the total estimated listings of 19,000. (Toronto MLScovers an area from Orangeville and Oakville in the west through Durham Region in the east.)

But listing and selling prices are two different things. In hot markets, or for hot properties, buyers gladly sign full-price and overprice offers. Conversely, homes can languish on the market for months or even years as sellers resist cutting prices when markets slow.

Still, last month, 175 properties were sold for $1 million or more. Not a bad sales-to-listing ratio. So far this month (through 7 October) 21 homes have changed hands for $1 million and more.


Million Dollar Digs in Midtown

Updated two-storey on a 50'-125' lot on St. Clements Ave., 5 br, 2 baths, annual taxes of $9,422. Listed at $929,000, sold 3 October for $1,092,000. On market for one week. Listing agent: Re/Max Ultimate Realty. Photo: TREB

Which means that:

1) A million dollar price tag on a resale home isn't the barrier it once was. Say, when a "luxury" car was $4,000-$5,000;

2) The price threshold of "luxury" should be notched upwards, perhaps to $1.4-$1.5 million. With a definition tied to the magic 7 figures, thousands of "luxury" homes are sold every year. That just doesn't sound very exclusive. When you've seen the extraordinary ordinariness of some of these million dollar babies--'60s tract bungalows, for instance--the appellation stretches credulity;

3) If "luxury" home sales are often the canary of the real estate market, we may not yet be facing the American-style collapsing bubble.

Hey Buddy, Can You Spare a Few Million?

The high-end housing market in parts of Toronto is certainly under siege.

The Toronto Real Estate Board division C-12 (bounded by Leslie, 401, Yonge and Lawrence) usually leads the list for the highest average monthly prices. It continues to do so, but listings are rising while sales dwindle.

MLS listings over $1 million have reached 127, with 96 of those listings exceeding $1.5 million. Monthly sales, which averaged 30-40 the first half of the year, were 21 in July, hit rock bottom in August of just 15, and moved up to 22 for September, including 15 over $1 million. So far this month: nada.


photo: TREB
What They Got For C$3,780,000
This brand new 6,500 sf 8 bath home on a 110x150ft. lot on Daleberry Place, southeast of Bayview Ave. & York Mills Rd., originally listed for C$3,980,000. Builder is Noik Homes

What's unique in C12 is that the supply of high-end homes is overwhelmingly new construction--completed in the last year or two and often occupied by the builders or under construction or finished and vacant. The supply will continue to swell through spring, as homes now under construction reach completion. (On one small Don Mills crescent alone there are six new homes under way or just listed, with only one a pre-sale.)
***
I wonder if retired Maple Leafs enforcer Tie Domi's gated mansion at 11 Oxbow will sport a "For Sale" sign soon. His wife, Leanne, in whose name title is held, has filed for divorce, citing Tie's relationship with Belinda Stronach as the cause.

***
And, just to put it all in perspective, Forbes has published its annual list of the most expensive homes now listed for sale in the United States. Topping the list was the Florida mansion of Mr. Chutzpah himself, Donald Trump, bearing a price tag of US$125 million. Trump, Forbes notes, picked up the property for only US$41.25 million in a bankruptcy sale; he's since had it painted or goldplated, or something in the taste fit for a Saudi prince.