An oceanfront home in Ponte Vedra Beach sold Feb. 23 at a no-reserve auction for $7,589,900, plus commission for Platinum Luxury Auctions of Miami.
The property is at 1263 Ponte Vedra Blvd.
The auction had been advertised on TV for weeks ahead of the event.
Manan and Vakta Gandhi bought the home from Daniel L. and Carol J. Wildermuth on March 25.
Manan Gandhi is the CEO of the family-owned Lucy’s Gift Boutique and Gretchen’s Hallmark. Gretchen’s Hallmark has 25 locations in the Southeast, according to its LinkedIn page.
Vakta Gandhi is a co-owner of Lucy’s Gift Boutique and Gretchen’s Hallmark and also is owner of Pandora Avenues Mall, Pandora Arbor Place and Annie’s Hallmark and Baldoria, according to Facebook.
Daniel and Carol Wildermuth resigned from their positions with the Alpharetta, Georgia-based Wildermuth Fund and from its board of trustees Nov. 1, 2023.
The Wildermuths paid $6.3 million for the home in April 2019. They asked for $11.9 million when it was placed on the market in July. There were no takers.
Eleven parties qualified to bid on the property. Of those, seven were present for the auction and four bid via video remote, said Trayor Lesnock, Platinum Luxury Auctions founder and president. The bids began near $3 million, said Lesnock, the auctioneer.
The bids increased in $500,000 and $1 million increments and then slowed when the bidding reached $6.75 million..
The auction buyer premium is usually 11% of the sale price, a $834,889 commission. That amount is split by the auction company buyer brokers and other participants.
Lesnock estimated that his company made about $450,000 on the sale.
“I don’t know of a time when our company has ever received the full 11%,” Lesnock said.
The auction was held without reserve, which means that once the auction began, it had to result in a winning bid. A no-reserve auction for multimillion dollar properties is fairly common.
“Out of our last 40 or 50 auctions, only two were done with a reserve,” he said.
However, home auctions are not the norm.
“These auctions are but a grain of sand on the beach of real estate sales,” Lesnock said.
Bidders had to consent to a background check to be sure they had the means to make the purchase. A refundable $100,000 deposit was required. The deposit was not returned to the winning bidder. The deposit is hefty enough to chase away gadflies, he said.
The bidders must agree to the terms of the sale. All of this is done up to the day before the auction.
Lesnock credits the pre-auction precautions to never having a winning bidder back out of the deal since founding his company in 2010.
The Mediterranean-style home sits on 1.5 acres with 200 feet of ocean frontage. It is about 1.6 miles south of Mickler’s Landing.
The home comprises six bedrooms and seven full and three half-baths. It has two gourmet kitchens, a media room, a private elevator, a fitness center, an executive office/study and a six-car garage.
The home contains a 2,200-bottle temperature-controlled wine cellar.
Outside, there is a resort-style pool, deck and a lagoon-themed pool and spa. The area is decorated with faux rocks. It offers spaces for dining and entertaining. The beach walk stretches from the back of the home to the ocean.
The home was sold with some furnishings. The wine collection, however, was not included.
A house of that size and scope could have provided a much higher price if in pristine condition, Lesnock said.
The oceanfront house was built in 1995 and needs more than $1.5 million in roof repairs and the installation of up-to-date impact windows. Little maintenance has been done since it was built, he said.