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Auction starts at $1.25 million for Chickamauga Lake mansion — luxury homes here 'a steal'
This nearly 10,000-square-foot mansion on Chickamauga Lake was sold at auction for more than $1.25 million.A nearly 10,000-square-foot mansion on Chickamauga Lake was sold at a Saturday morning auction that attracted nine bidders who proved they could afford the reserve price of $1.25 million - and then some.
"A lot of these folks were very, very, very qualified. Some of them could have written checks to buy this home 20 times over and still have money in the bank," said Trayor Lesnock, president of Platinum Luxury Auctions, the Miami-based firm that auctioned off the two-story mansion on Clematis Drive. "We were very pleased with the quality and quantity of the bidders."
The winner agreed to pay more than the $1.25 million reserve price, Lesnock said.
"I can tell you that the price well exceeded the reserve," he said.
But the sales price won't become public information until the sale closes in 30 days, he said, because the auction firm was forbidden by contract to release it.
The highest-priced home ever to sell in the Chattanooga area was a little over $4 million, said real estate agent Jay Robinson, founder and owner of the Robinson Team of Keller Williams Realty Downtown Chattanooga, and there have been six sales above $3 million and 24 transactions between $2 million and $3 million.
Buyers live in Tennessee
Lesnock declined to say who put in the winning bid, so that information won't become public until the sale is registered with Hamilton County.
"I know they are Tennessee residents," he said. "I'm not sure if they're local [to Chattanooga] or not."
Among the nine registered bidders, four actually submitted bids on Saturday."
"That is actually not uncommon," Lesnock said. "Sometimes the bidding moves too quickly, and somebody doesn't get to make their play. We called the auction for about 15 minutes, which is a fairly good amount of time."
The winner had to make a nonrefundable deposit of 10 percent of the mansion's sales price.
This is Platinum Luxury Auctions' first foray into the Chattanooga market.
Lesnock said it's a "good bet," that it won't be the last.
"We have a handful of other folks with whom we are speaking," he said.
To get bidders in the mood, Saturday's auction was preceded by a charity auction of a bottle of Dom Perignon champagne, which Lesnock said went for $300. Platinum Luxury Auctions matched that with another $300 and donated the $600 to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
"I think the cost of the bottle was $215," Lesnock said. "Nothing exotic."
Contact staff writer Tim Omarzu at tomarzu@timesfreepress.com or www.facebook.com/Meets ForBusiness or twitter.com/meetforbusiness or 423-757-6651.