Photo by Kevin Beese

Auctions bid for luxury real estate market.

Helge Frank is teaching his grandsons how to golf from the comfort of his Oak Brook home.

He is not sitting them in front of an endless loop of golf videos on one of the home’s 17 flat-screen TVs or talking over the commentators on streaming PGA action. Frank takes them into the home’s sports court room and let’s them hit golf balls.

“It’s my favorite room in the house,” Frank said.

The retired neurosurgeon has used the room for racquetball, basketball and a host of other activities for himself, his family and his friends.

Phil Chiricotti, president of Accelerated Marketing & Sales, Inc. of Western Springs, believes the sports court is one of the top selling points of the seven-bedroom, 8.5-bath, 10,500-square-foot home.

“For the family with five or six kids, needing space for an in-law arrangement or both sets of parents, the house is perfect,” Chiricotti said.

The key is finding that family. In that quest, Chiricotti sent out 60,000 emails over a two-day period promoting the home that will be available through an online auction in June.

The auction route is becoming an increasingly popular option for owners of luxury homes. Most seven-figure homes sell before ever getting to the auction date as potential buyers know the auction date and act to get the property before it goes to the highest bidder.

Chiricotti said the intense marketing that accompanies an auction done the right way gets the property before the right potential buyers. He said with more than 100 homes over $1 million on the market in every upscale community such as Barrington, Burr Ridge, Hinsdale and Oak Brook, traditional real estate listings aren’t getting the job done anymore.

“The problem is that in a lot of these suburbs, home prices are 50-70 percent below where they were in 2006,” Chiricotti said. “In communities like Barrington, Hinsdale and Burr Ridge, prices are way below the 2006 peak.”

He said luxury homes are sitting on the market in many communities for years with no takers.

Chiricotti himself had a luxury home for sale in Burr Ridge for four years. He went through four different Realtors in that time.

When he finally changed gears and listed the home for sale via auction, it sold within four months, never getting to the auction date.

The experience led Chiricotti to start his own business to provide the exposure than homes up for auction need to attract the right buyers.

“There is no market (for luxury homes) with just listings,” Chiricotti said. “You need to do more marketing.”

Chiricotti said thinking outside the box to reach potential buyers is what is needed to sell luxury homes.. He has gone through Chinese phone books and placed ads in Lithuanian newspapers and websites to connect with foreigners relocating to the Chicago area.

“A Lithuanian bought my house,” Chiricotti said.

The auction process requires a minimum bid so owners can’t be forced to sell for under whatever reserve they set.

Frank has set the opening bid for his Oak Brook home at $1.6 million.

“If someone were to build this house today, it would cost $4 million or $5 million,” Frank said. “Somebody is going to get a heck of a deal.”