Four land tracts in Kansas were auctioned off via Purple Wave this week and went for a total of $587,750.
The tracts were auctioned using a non-traditional method. The auction was done online through Purple Wave and the land was shown locally. The only thing done online was the bidding. The land that was auctioned included 320 acres near Council Grove for $187,00, 240 acres northwest of Westmoreland for $264,00, 60 acres south of Westmoreland for $115,500 and 27 acres in Chase County for $19,250.
“Every day we keep hearing stories of people trying for months or years to sell a property without so much as a single offer,” said Aaron McKee, president of Purple Wave. “Yet this land attracted 70 bidders either online or in person and we had 332 Internet bids before we ever began the live auction.”
Purple Wave was founded by McKee and auctions off anything from land to farm equipment.
“Purple Wave specializes in connecting buyers and sellers worldwide,” according to www.purplewave.com. “We sell — as a seller’s agent through unreserved, public auction — a broad range of assets such as high-value commercial and agricultural real estate, equipment, vehicles and specialty property for a variety of sellers.”
The online land auction process is one that is growing. McKee said the trend of showing properties locally and auctioning them online allows more people to be involved in the process.
“We (saw) a lot of interest from both agriculture users and recreational users,” McKee said, in an earlier article in The Gazette. “This gives us a good venue to allow them both to participate. We have had a good amount of interest in the properties, both locally and out of state.”
“It allows a lot more buyers to be involved in the process. It allows buyers who may not be able to invest the time to be specifically on the ground with this property in the beginning stages to get enough information to be involved in the process.”
In a previous article in The Gazette, Carl Carter of Purple Wave said the auction format is unique.
“One thing that is not typical is the combination of the online and face-to-face element,” Carter said. “It’s not an eBay model. It’s really a case where you have people talking face-to-face out showing the land. The only thing that happens online is the bidding.”
McKee said the properties are getting a lot of interest and the model of selling is successful based on the results. He added that the type of property is in high demand as well.
“We’re really glad to be working with this Flint Hills grassland,” he said. “It’s one of those things we have been specializing in. It’s unique and has a lot of national demand. It’s very attractive to the world. We’re glad to have the opportunity to handle it.”
Auction rules required Internet bidding to cease one hour before the live bidding was scheduled. For about two hours, live bidders competed against each other at Purple Wave’s headquarters in Manhattan. They also competed against the bids already made online.
“The property sells in whatever combination brings the highest price,” McKee said. “In this case, three of the four properties sold to live bidders, though two of the live bidders had also bid online and chose to participate in the live auction as well.”
Early this week, Purple Wave began an auction of about 90 pieces of farm machinery from Kansas and Missouri.