What's New At Murco
Murco A'Musings (7/21/10)
The auction last weekend was pretty good, given that we had about 3 seconds lead time!
Ok, 3 days, but they sure seemed like seconds as we whipped the auction into life and into our auction line up. The house wasn’t the Taj, but it had some worthwhiles for sure. As a broker, I have the responsibility of “giving the people what they want” which is essentially, “the best of the best for next to no money”. Welcome to my professional hell! Just kidding. We pick and choose what houses we run based on the knowledge of what you, the buyers, want. A two year old six burner Viking range? Yes please. An original 1970 sea-foam oven? Eeh—you get my point. Some materials are more sought out than others, and we try to bring you the best of the best. This house had some great stuff, but did it have enough? That we weren’t sure of. It’s not always clear how the market will fare, and it becomes murkier when we don’t have a lot of lead time to test the waters. But, we pulled it off!
This auction had lots of newbies in attendance. (Come children, I have candy for you!) Unfortunately, they caught on real quick, and I once again had to fight for every nickel. I won some, lost most, but a good time was had by all.
The next day I went back to see the house and meet a buyer. As I turned the corner, in front of the house were 4 fire trucks, 2 ambulances and at least 15 swarming firemen. I barely put my car in park and went running for the fire captain. He turned to see a wild eyed crazy redhead barreling down the sidewalk in platforms and a sundress. I swear he was as scared as I was.
Turns out, they were doing drills in the house. They were on the roof, cutting holes with chainsaws, in full fireman regalia, all 200 hot sweaty pounds of it. (When I say they looked hot, I mean that in every sense of the word… ordinarily, red suspenders are a turn off, but these guys pull it off like nobody’s business!)
Anyway, I bring this up only to educate you about some of the processes of teardowns. Working ahead of the firemen’s drills is a great one – two punch. We diverted many materials from the house then the house was used to train the fine young men who risk their lives to save yours. It’s always bittersweet when a house gets demolished, but good beginnings come from good endings.
Til next week!