Buyers need not stand in a crowd making special signals to bid in this auction. No furniture trucks are needed, and they don't even have to have the cash in their pockets should they be the successful bidders.

It's Kaufman & Broad's October 29 Internet auction of 65 newly-built homes located in Castaic, Chino, Chino Hills, Fontana, Hemet, Loma Linda, Perris, Riverside, and Victorville, representing eleven Kaufman & Broad new home communities. The bidding will be conducted from the home computers of registered bidders and also at the Hilton Ontario Airport Hotel at 2 p.m. on Sunday, October 29, with minimum bids starting at $95,000 to $339,000, according to company sources.

Dubbed "the largest Internet auction of new homes ever held," Jay Moss, regional general manager of K & B's Greater Los Angeles Division explains the advantages of this type of forum in home selling. "The Internet auction gives homebuyers a whole new way to buy a home in less time and with less stress. For one thing, the final selling price of a home in an auction may be lower than in a non-auction sale. This particular auction displays such a huge selection that if a buyer is outbid on one home, quite possibly another will be available to meet his or her needs."

Should this large-scale auction prove successful, the cyber-world may well become a new way for homebuilders to move what are called "inventory" homes, which are homes speculatively built by production home builders and available to move into within a short period of time. Most homebuilders begin offering special incentives or lowered pricing on homes that they must potentially "carry" after their completion, an expensive proposition. Builders with many different new home communities, such as Kaufman & Broad, can offer all their completed or nearly-completed homes in a given geographic area at once, potentially giving buyers bargains and reducing their inventory at the same time. The 65 homes being auctioned, according to a company press release are either move-in ready or are scheduled for completion on or about November 30.

Once the bidding begins, high bids will be projected immediately on large screens at the hotel and on home computer screens of registered bidders. All 65 homes will be open for bid simultaneously, with a three-minute timer that will be re-set with every new high bid. The auction will conclude when there is no bidding on any of the 65 homes for a period of three minutes.

The homes being offered feature two to six bedrooms and two to three baths. Information on the communities and homes themselves is available through www.kbhomes.com, or at 1-888-249-3989.

To be eligible to conduct Internet bids, buyers will be required to register for the auction at a participating Kaufman & Broad community by Thursday, October 26, or can register in person on auction day at the site of the event in Ontario, California.

Published: October 25, 2000

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