Not more than two months following the condo auction at Broadluxe in Boston’s Financial District, there are three resale units available for sale – all of which sold at the auction on June 21, 2008 to a single bidder. If you’re at all close to the Boston MLS, you may have even seen these units hit the market in July, however, they were removed because the auction bidder did not actually own the units at the time. Closings on auction units at Broadluxe began on July 28, 2008.
These three Broadluxe flips have steep price increases from the prices paid at auction less than two months ago (unit number – price paid at auction / new list price):
- 5A – $482,500 / $688,500 ($635 per square foot)
- 7A – $375,000 / $750,000 ($739 per square foot)
- 8B – $595,000 / $1,075,000 ($809 per square foot)
Bear in mind that Broadluxe had two overarching unit types, finished units, and what were called shell units. The former are move in ready, while the latter need to be finished by the Buyer (i.e. unfinished concrete floors, sheet rock on the walls, and rough plumbing and electrical installed, that’s it). Terms were written into the Purchase and Sale Agreement for the shell units that construction to finish the units needed to commence no later than 6 months following purchase, and finish no later than 18 months following purchase.
Unit 5A will remain as is, it’s a corner unit that came finished. Units 7A and 8B appear to have plans to be finished by the current owner (i.e. in addition to the price paid at auction, an investment will be made into finishing the unit to make it move in ready) . All in (including finishing units 7A and 8B), the current owner is attempting to make, as they say on the Flip This House TV show, an “expected profit” of at least $200K on each unit. 15 units remained for sale following the June auction, and most of those sold rather quickly in the month following the auction, but while post auction units have not been selling at (minimum bid) auction prices (i.e. they have been selling for more than auction minimum bid prices), tremendous value has still been available for most Buyers.
While the Broadluxe auction presented downtown Boston Buyers with one of the best bargains available in 2008, time will tell if such flips as the three described above will command anything close to their asking prices.
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Tim Ryan 
