Other committee members include Joe French, Marcus & Millichap; Rosendo Caveiro, Cushman & Wakefield; Laurence Bergman, NAI Bergman; Gloria Neri, First American Title; Peter Cifelli, Bank of America Merrill Lynch; Frank Diliberto, Diliberto Real Estate; and Dr. Sam Chandan, Chandan Economics.

According to Diliberto, who also sits on the event's asset approval committee, “I'm thrilled to be part of AuctionPoint2013 because it benefits all parties in a transaction: brokers, sellers and buyers. First of all, there are no costs to brokers or sellers. Secondly, we carefully underwrite every asset submitted to ensure we're offering buyers quality assets that are priced to sell. Finally, AuctionPoint2013 offers one of the lowest—if not the lowest—buyer's premiums in the industry: just 2.5%, compared to the typical 5% or more.”

Anderson tells GlobeSt.com that the fact that the event is created by brokers for brokers makes it unique and valuable. “The entire brokerage community is involved here. We have people from some of the larger firms and agents from other offices, and with the 2.5% buyer's premium, I think you're going to see buyers pay a lot of attention to the assets in this event.”

Anderson says he was asked to chair the event after participating in Sperry Van Ness's large national event with AuctionPoint in October 2012, on which GlobeSt.com previously reported. “They were very impressed with the way we collaborated and asked me to chair the event for an entire industry. Everyone on the event committee has auction experience, and that's what they were looking for. We have all used auctions for date certain disposition.”

As GlobeSt.com previously reported, the auction process is being lauded as the future wave for real estate sales. Westwood Financial Corp. recently foreclosed on a defaulted loan the firm purchased that had been in receivership on Woodcreek Plaza, a 23,112-square-foot retail center here. The center had been on the market for 39 days, marketed by Auction.com.

According to Taylor Grant, a judicial receiver with Newport Beach, CA-based Real Estate Receiverships, the court-appointed receiver for the property prior to Westwood's purchase of the loan, the success of the note sale was in part due to Auction.com's innovative platform and comprehensive marketing reach that resulted in 873 hits on its website and 29 offers for the note, with escrow taking only 20 days to close.

Anderson says the total transparency that online auctions offer helps streamline the process. “All the due diligence reports are posted on the Web well in advance of the auction, and sellers have to have their property approved to enter it in the event. In the past, a buyer would do a lot of due diligence and spend a lot of money on environmental impact reports and then found out the seller wasn't able to sell the asset. By using this format, buyers know that if an asset is in the event it's going to be sold. There are no wild goose chases.”

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