A model way to get new furnishings
By Pat
Curry • Bankrate.com
Everything has already been depreciated on their
corporate tax return, so they're more interested in clearing it out
of the way than getting the money that's brought in. Linda Hanford,
a regional marketing manager for Toll Brothers, has worked with a
variety of large builders and says that the public can often pick
up items at a tenth of the cost that the builder paid for them new.
(Toll Brothers, she notes, sells its models completely furnished.)
Erin Hunsinger says she gets calls all the time about
furnishings in her models. A design manager for Lennar/U.S. Home
Corp., one of the nation's largest home builders, Hunsinger says
that by the time they're ready to dump items, they've been used
in two or three projects. Some of their divisions will auction items
out of the models, usually on a Saturday morning. The auctions are
cash-only, and buyers have to remove their purchases the same day.
"It is the most fun and brings in the best return,
yet still gives everyone a great deal, considering the quality of
furnishings that we use and what the original retail value was,"
she says. "People get some smoking deals!"
Houston-based David Weekley Homes is one of several
national builders that use Builders Auction Company, a third-party
auction house, to handle its sales.
"We do these auctions every now and then,"
says company spokeswoman Cindy Haynes. "Basically, we do it
if we don't have an immediate use for the furniture and our current
model is closing out. Sometimes it's better to sell it rather than
storing it. It's too hard on the furniture."
Individuals can pay a $20 fee to get access to
a Web site for advance notice of upcoming sales, says Bruce Sutter,
CEO and founder of Builders
Auction Company. The fee covers the cost of shooting digital photos
of the items up for sale, he says.
There's no minimum bid at the auctions, but there
is a 12 percent buyer's premium that may go up to 14 percent, he
says. ("Our costs have gone up and we haven't raised prices
in eight years," he says.) Winning bidders can pay for their
purchases with cash, checks, MasterCard and Visa. They must take
delivery the same day.
Popular items at the auctions include home theater
set-ups, seating, theme-oriented children's bedrooms and posters,
Sutter says. The funniest thing he says he's ever seen at a model
home furniture auction was the group of young men who bought a pool
table and proceeded to turn it upside down and put it on top of
a Honda to take it home.
"I screamed at them not to do that,"
he says. "They did it anyway and it buckled the roof. They
said, 'No problem. It's not our car.'"
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