A rare scene in Squaw Valley, California (near Lake Tahoe)... a live real esate auction.  A successful sale took place Saturday afternoon as 15 condos were auctioned off at the Resort at Squaw Creek for final sale.  These were the last of the developer’s units.  Developer originally sold the hotel condos in 2005 and had the remaining few in their inventory for the last few years.  Kennedy Williams set the stage for the auction with one of their senior auctioneers running the show.  The room was filled with bidders, local brokers and staff members.  Before starting the auction, the auctioneer did a practice round and let everyone use their paddles and online bidders to practice hitting their bid button.  It got all the pre auction gitters out of the way and then they started with the first one.

I just picked up the Journal and on the front page is an article about a Texas bank demolishing homes in Southern California that it gained through foreclosure.  This really gets me thinking about the mortgage crisis that is upon.  Hopefully the bank system and mortgage industry will come out of all of this with a better way of doing business in the future.  I hope this does not become a trend.  Any thoughts?

As we settle back into the groove here in Squaw Valley, California and enjoy the snow that is falling, we are reflecting on our time in Paris and Chamonix. Ron and I both enjoyed the paris conference and meeting real estate brokers and developers from around the world. As a direct result of the conference we have started blogging. Please check it out at www.lawrencerealty.wordpress.com and enjoy some great photos from Chamonix. Thank you to Brian and the LRE staff for such a great event.