You can buy a Las Vegas penthouse on your smartphone
You can buy anything on your phone these days.
Clothes, groceries and music to name a few. Need a ride to the airport? Click on Uber or Lyft apps.
Now you can add buying a multi-million dollar Las Vegas condo on that list.
That is welcome news for renowned poker players and owners of Card Player Media, Barry and Allyn Shulman of Las Vegas. The couple didn’t have much luck selling their French-style penthouse at the Metropolis the traditional way and are now putting all of their chips into a one-hour auction Oct. 18 in which people around the world can bid on an app called Instant Gavel.
Auctions aren’t unusual for high-end real estate. That’s how casino owner Phil Ruffin bought Primm Ranch in October 2015 for $6.71 million, including a 10 percent premium. That auction, however, was held in a private hangar at McCarran International Airport with many participants on hand in the catered event and others who participated by phone.
This is the next-generation real estate auction where no one shows up and no one knows who’s bidding against them. All they need is an app downloaded on their phone or tablet, deposit $100,000 into an escrow account, present a bank letter with ability to pay, and click and bid.
The auction is being conducted by New York-based Concierge Auctions, the same firm who did the Primm Ranch sale a year ago. Concierge drums up the interest by tapping into its worldwide pool of potential buyers, and they or their agents, family members or representatives can take a tour of the penthouse starting about a month before the bidding opens.
Barry Shulman said he has had the penthouse listed for several months at $4.88 million and had a few people look at it but nothing serious so far. His Realtor, Kristen Routh-Silberman of Synergy Sotheby’s International Realty, who represented Primm Ranch, suggested using the mobile auction because there is a much larger pool of buyers beyond Las Vegas.
“I have been in the real estate business and have never thought about using an auction before,” Shulman said. “There’s tons of data, and it’s fabulous how it works and attention it’s gotten. It’s very interesting the physiology that happens sometimes. The whole trick is to have more than one guy (who) wants it.”
Concierge Auctions President Laura Brady said her company rolled out the digital bidding platform in 2010, and it didn’t go well because bidders weren’t comfortable with it at the time. They reintroduced it a year ago, and now about 85 percent of the auctions are conducted via the app, she said.
“We were just a little quick in coming out to market with that,” Brady said. “We found in the last couple of years that the attendance started waning and more people who wanted to do on the telephone by either they weren’t in town. It became evident that bidders were more ready to transact online and on mobile devices. Now everyone is used to riding Uber online, and ordering everything online and transacting online is much more commonplace.”
Another benefit of the mobile auction is there are more providers and visibility, Brady said. With a live auction, it can be difficult to follow in a room full of bidders, and now they can see where the bids are at all time. Another is that buyers of ultra-high-end properties increasingly want to remain anonymous, and the app allows that, she said.
Shulman said the couple bought a lot and built a one-story home along Lake Las Vegas, and that’s why they are selling the penthouse. At the age of 70 and with a bad knee, he said, climbing stairs isn’t as easy these days. He also is a short distance from his grandchildren.
The stakes are high, as the auction won’t have a reserve price, meaning whoever is the highest bidder will get the tri-level penthouse. Shulman, who closed on in the penthouse in December 2005, paid $1.5 million for the shell and added the rooftop for $1 million more.
Shulman sank in $5 million in upgrades that included the outdoor deck with a kitchen, Jacuzzi, dance floor, theater, bathroom, bar and fountain. The penthouse has views of the Strip and the Wynn’s golf course, and Shulman said he bought the roof because he had just married Ally and she wanted a garden.
“There’s absolutely nothing like it in Las Vegas,” Shulman said. “I have lived in New York, and they have these giant high-rises where someone gets the penthouses of these big roofs. You just don’t have outdoor entertainment areas like that in Vegas.”
The couple said they modeled their penthouse at 360 E. Desert Inn Drive after the Palace of Versailles. The two-story dining and living area has hand-selected wall sconces, fixtures, lighting and striped Roman drapes on balcony vistas. Connecting the two floors is a marble staircase with a crystal chandelier. The sale also includes much of the furniture that matches the penthouse.
This marks the fifth auction Concierge has conducted in Las Vegas since 2014.
“Las Vegas is one of our target markets and area of focus that continues to grow, and you will be seeing us more often,” Brady said.
Since it was founded in 2008, the business has spanned 32 states and 14 countries, resulting in more than $1 billion in sales, Brady said. It starts with properties of $2.5 million and higher, and the average sale is $3.8 million, she said.
“Most of the properties in this price category, especially when you get close to $5 million is difficult to value,” Brady said. “It makes more sense to say the market will determine what the price is.”
Shulman, a former developer who owns five commercial properties, said the reality is he is likely to get back about half of the money put into the penthouse. That makes it a fabulous real estate acquisition for the buyer, he said.
“I have been in the real estate business for decades, and sometimes you make big hits because the market swings and sometimes you don’t,” Shulman said. “I put too much money into it from a business standpoint. Every single thing we did was more expensive than it would have been if I was building it as a developer.”
Drawing from a worldwide pool of buyers who want a home in Las Vegas, Shulman said he would not be surprised it could lure buyers from one of any country such as China, India, Mexico or Brazil. He said he can’t wait to see how this auction unfolds.
“I was joking the other day that it may go so cheap, relatively, that I was thinking about bidding on it myself, but I already own it,” Shulman said, laughing. “I would like to be on the other hand where I’m getting top dollar, but you have to do what you have to do sometimes.”
