by Jessica Swesey
Inman News
The strangest phone call real estate veteran Steven Good ever received started with this question: “You ever sell a jail before?”
Good, the chief executive of realty auction company Sheldon Good & Co., in his forthcoming book offers readers a behind-the-scenes look at how to use auctions to sell such unique properties as golf courses, private islands and even jails.
Good’s book, “Churches, Jails and Goldmines: Mega-Deals from a Real Estate Maverick,” is an entertaining narrative that explores real estate deals involving a downtown county jail, an assembly of eight churches, historical landmarks, mineral rights and other below-ground property issues, luxury condominiums and an international real estate auction. The book is due out in November from Dearborn Trade Publishing.
Each chapter is a first-person account from an agent who was involved in the sale of an unusual property. In the chapter titled, “The Jailhouse Rocked,” Good explains how the telephone call about selling a jail turned into a full-blown auction in the Porter County Board of Commissioner’s chambers in downtown Valparaiso, Ind.
Good’s company specializes in using auctions as a marketing method to sell some of the world’s most unique real estate. The company handles more than 70 different classes of real estate, including houses, mansions, bowling alleys, bars, nightclubs, libraries, ski resorts, mountains, gold mines, churches, elementary schools, exotic game farms and private lakes.
In the book’s introduction, Good wrote that he’s always amused when people ask him how the real estate market is doing. His reply: “Which market?”
He noted that when he first started with the company most people thought real estate auctions made sense only for poor properties in marginal locations and considered an auction as a last resort when all other selling methods failed.
But Good realized most real estate is not easily valued.
“Add economic turbulence, uncertainty and market volatility to the mix and all of a sudden real estate owners in need of disposition services are looking for a solution better than selling their properties in traditional ways,” Good wrote.
The company then began to target people who owned properties that are “not easily valued” and found its niche.
Real estate mogul Donald Trump wrote the book’s afterward, which is a detailed story of how he purchased the tallest building in Manhattan, 40 Wall Street, for $1 million in 1995. The 72-story building now nets Trump about $20 million a year in rental profits.