Las Vegas Review-Journal (Sunday)
You can buy a mansion on your smartphone
Couple put their French-style penthouse up for auction
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 multimillion 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 highend 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.