REAL ESTATE : New Auction Firm Gets a Push From the Slumping Market

As the real estate market continues to consist mainly of a lot of properties chasing a very few buyers, more and more developers, banks, corporations, individuals and government agencies are turning to public auctions to move homes, business buildings and raw land.

That has been a boon for established real estate auction firms like LFC Real Estate Marketing Services in Newport Beach (which recently auctioned 35 empty condominiums in a Donald Trump development in West Palm Beach, Fla.) and Kennedy Wilson Inc. in Santa Monica.

It also has been good for new firms like Real Estate Disposition Corp. in Santa Ana.

Jim Lewis, head of marketing for the company, said business in the last quarter was so good that the company has doubled its staff to 10 full-time people and moved from a 1st Street office in Santa Ana to larger, plusher quarters in the city’s Hutton Centre.

The firm, which began just a year ago from its roots as a raw land auctioneering company, does a lot of work for residential developers, who are finding that auctions are a viable way to sell new homes, Lewis said.

But business also comes from banks and savings and loans trying to sell foreclosed properties, and from corporations, government agencies, builders and others who have a property but can’t find a buyer in the “traditional” market, he said.

A big reason the business is booming, Lewis maintains, is that a growing number of buyers are deciding that auctions aren’t just gimmicks and that they can find some bargains on properties.