In a softening housing market clamoring for prices, conditions and other matters sure to spur satisfactory sales, Dennis Grover and Craig Dreiling say they know exactly where to find them: tonight, in the Crystal Ballroom at the Eldridge Hotel.

The colleagues from Lawrence Realty Associates will conduct a multiple property auction there beginning at 7 p.m., looking to move 17 properties – residential, commercial and otherwise awaiting development – out of sales limbo and into the possession of new owners.

And they’ll do it while appealing to the high-dollar atmosphere they say such real estate deserves.

“We don’t do fire sales,” said Dreiling, who is teaming up with Grover to conduct the auction. “We don’t do ’emergency auctions.’ This one will be in the Crystal Ballroom. It’s an event.

“It’s not out on the front porch of the house, ranting off numbers. It’s a different approach, which is comparable to Christie’s or Sotheby’s. It’s a lot different than what’s common knowledge about what an auction is.”

Realtors, sellers and buyers increasingly are looking to such approaches, drawn by hopes for speeding sales and limiting expenses as the nationwide real estate market cools.

National growth

Such auctions are the fastest-growing segment of the auction industry, and have been so for the past three or four years, said Steve Baska, a spokesman for the National Auctioneers Association, based in Overland Park.

The number of auctions of residential properties nationwide increased 4.5 percent during the third quarter, making it the category’s fastest-growing segment. Such auctions accounted for $14.2 billion in sales last year, up about 23 percent from $11.5 billion two years earlier.

“It’s a combination of more auctioneers doing real estate auctions, and the public being more open to trying real estate auctions,” said Baska, who is editor of Auctioneer magazine. “Because of eBay, in part, people are more used to the auction method than ever before. They’re thinking auction.

Craig Dreiling, left, and Dennis GRover, longtime Lawrence Realtors, are aiming to sell 17 properties during an auction today at the Eldridge Hotel, 701 Mass. They visited one of the lots to be auctioned, which is next to a house to be auctioned at 4528 Lili. Real estate auctions are increasing in popularity as the market cools.

“And it’s also a function of the real estate market. : People are wanting to try faster options.”

Bill Fair can’t argue with that.

These days the owner of Bill Fair and Co., in Lecompton, has never been busier in his 37 years as an auctioneer, including the past 26 in real estate.

Auction ‘avalanche’

A licensed broker in Kansas and five other states, Fair reports having sold more than $16 million in real estate at auction during the past three years. While residential sales account for a relatively small slice of that total – he did about 20 residential auctions this past year – he knows that the numbers will continue to rise as other listed properties linger longer on the open market.

“It’s been an avalanche, a landslide,” Fair said. “We go to annual conventions – there are 2,000 auctioneers in the United States – and they’re all saying the same thing.”

Dreiling and Grover jumped into the auction business a year ago, after researching the industry and attending auctioneers school in Minnesota.

Both Realtors figured that auctions could help them expand their services and differentiate themselves in a crowded field of real estate professionals. Lawrence Realty Associates provided support, and the agency’s Auction Marketing Division was born.

Tonight’s auction is the division’s third, and also the largest. It features a wide variety of properties, from development land in Bonner Springs to storefronts in Perry and nearly 5 acres of commercial property in Osage Beach, Mo.

New construction

But in a rarity for Lawrence, the auction also includes three new homes and two undeveloped lots in the Oakley Addition, a residential area generally southwest of Sixth Street and Monterey Way. Also available: a new 5,000-square-foot home in Longleaf, a development generally north of Bob Billings Parkway and west of George Williams Way.

Just a few years ago, builders in town couldn’t get homes up fast enough to meet swarming demand, and unbuilt lots were commanding premium prices.

Not anymore.

Overall sales in the Lawrence market are down 13 percent during the past year, said Pat Flavin, president of Lawrence Realty Associates.

Grover, who has been selling homes in town for more than 20 years, said that the Lawrence market had enough homes priced from $250,000 to $500,000 to meet demand for the next two or two-and-a-half years.

Tonight’s auction will require that bidders for properties be willing to close a sale within 30 days.

“There are a lot of builders that are finding this is a viable option for them, because a lot of them are carrying a lot of inventory and this is a way to move it a little bit quicker,” Grover said.

But auctions aren’t for everyone, he said.

Once bidding closes in tonight’s auction, each high bidder must be willing to pay a nonrefundable down payment of 10 percent of the purchase price or $5,000, whichever is higher.

The purchase price will be the sum of the high bid and a 10 percent buyer’s premium. That means a $200,000 bid would become a $220,000 purchase.

And a winning bid doesn’t necessarily secure a purchase. Sellers in tonight’s auction can choose not to accept any bids at all, then hang onto the properties for future sales.

But Grover fully expects success. He figures at least 100 people will show up, and the sellers will be entertaining viable offers for their properties.

“We have motivated sellers,” he said.