Luxury Home In East Hampton To Go Up For Auction

An East Hampton estate near Main Beach will be auctioned off in November after languishing on the market.

It will be among three residences Sheldon Good & Company, a luxury real estate auction firm, will present to the public—the other two homes are in Palm Beach, Florida, and Dutchess County.

Composed of two adjoining properties, 81 Ocean Avenue and 10 Lockwood Lane, the estate in East Hampton overlooks Hook Pond. The combined properties will start at $12 million.

“We always start off low,” said Craig Post, executive director of Sheldon Good & Company. “The question is where the pricing will stop; that’s up to the bidder, it varies from property to property.”

Often homeowners turn to real estate auctions after having tried out the market and, for some reason, not finding a buyer. The auction serves as a “call to action,” Mr. Post explained. “Sellers like to use auctions because they’re able to time the sale for a specific date, so in this case the sellers know that … the property will be sold to the highest bidder,” he said. “That’s the main reason why people use auctions.”

The East Hampton estate appears to have been listed with a few brokerages, including Corcoran and Sotheby’s International Realty. It is unclear for how long it was listed before getting pulled, but it had been priced at Corcoran for $18 million in January before dropping to $17.75 million in June and finally to $17 million in July, according to Trulia.

The estate was originally purchased by Betty Richards in 1967. It’s now in a family trust and used by Ms. Richards’s son, Frederick Ayer III, his wife, Claire, and their children. The Ayers reportedly wanted to time the sale of the property, as they spend most of their time in France and Morocco.

Each parcel in East Hampton has more than 2 acres and combined they have 247 contiguous feet of shoreline on Hook Pond. The 3,200-square-foot main residence on Ocean Avenue was restored in 2009 and comes with four bedrooms and 4.5 baths, as well as a formal living room and dining room, library and media room, two fireplaces and a terrace with water and Maidstone Golf Club views.

Meanwhile, the 2,000-square-foot cottage on Lockwood Lane features three bedrooms and three baths, as well as a living room, dining room, kitchen and a fireplace.

The auction will take place on November 11 at 7 p.m. at the St. Regis Hotel in New York City. In order to participate, a bidder must do the following: register with Sheldon Good online or at an open house; order a bidder’s information packet; and attend the auction with a certified or cashier’s check for $600,000 made payable to Sheldon Good & Company, as escrow agent.

“It’s a win-win for both buyers and sellers,” said Mr. Post. “Especially in the Hamptons, an auction really puts a spotlight on a property and puts the market focus on it.”

For more information, call (800) 516-0014.