It’s auction day!
After a good month and a half in South Italy, I drive family back up to our home near Milan. The entire way, testing out the features of our recent used car purchase. What waited us when we arrived to Milan, were both very exciting. First, we’d be picking up my parents from the airport for their first three week trip in Italy! And second, we would be participating in an auction during the first few days of their stay.
If you read the previous post in November, you already know about the property. If not, you should go and check that out first.
Well, I’m here today to continue where we left off and provide an update to the current status.
Auction day
We woke up early, leaving the
kids asleep since my parents were staying with us. That was a great first experience for us. Since we started our family so far away from each of our parents, it isn’t common to leave the kids behind.
Upon arriving at the courthouse, we go through the ritualistic fight for parking. I personally like to park down the street at the grocery store as opposed to battling for the closet paid spots. Entering the front doors we feel the excitement is what’s about to take place as we place our metal objects into plastic trays to pass through security.
The auction is to be held in one of three courtrooms that can be found in the northern wing one stacked upon the other. Luckily we’ve given ourselves extra time to track it down to room on the basement floor.
The Court Room
The room was filled with eager parties, each waiting their turn to cast their lot for a chance to win their future home. We took a seat, comfortably in the front row. This wasn’t our first rodeo, nor would it be the last!
The court bench seated multiple property custodians that would be responsible for more than 30 auctions throughout the morning. Some anxiety entered, as we waited for our procedure to be called out amongst the buzzing crowd.
‘Did we miss it?’
‘Are they already bidding?’
Questions rang it as we waited for what seemed an eternity.
Let it Commence
‘306/2012! Ospedaletto!’ Simeone bellowed from the bench. Here it is! The awaited moment. Anxiety increased as we stood up, our eyes dating across the room in an attempt to identify our son to be competition.
To the left no one moved… to the right, no one. We walked to the bench with austerity. We had a plan to win this auction, and no one was going to take it from us! Determined we stopped at the bench looking up at the custodian wondering for a moment if we were alone. That was our true wish. The minimum offer was so low, we would have been crazy not to participate! If no one else came we’d get the property for an insane deal.
Footsteps behind us cleared the suspense.
Competition!
Just ourselves and another middle aged man.
Bid War
The custodian began his process, confirming our identities and verifying our submittals were in order. Soon the price war would begin.
Ela, being our family spokesperson participated in the raises. Her strategy is to stay clear and confident to get purpose hoping that her quick decisions and demeanor would intimidate the competition into backing down.
The bidding started!
€1000 at a time we were each given 60 seconds to decide if we would outbid the previous maximum.
60 seconds was far too much for Ela!
With each raise, Ela would shoot out another €1000 until we reached our predestinated limit with our competition holding the torch. Without hesitation, Ela raised it once again.
Over our limit, the next sixty seconds felt as if an eternity. Tick Tock tick…. tick.
‘Sold!,’ exclaimed the auctioneer.
The house was ours and we were excited to share the news with my mom and dad when we made it home. Afterwards sharing a well deserved victory lunch.
The end
Payment
As a standard we are given 120 days to complete payment, so we had plenty of time to continue our family vacation. We toured many major cities and finished on the beaches of Salento. A few weeks later we dropped my parents off at the airport, spending the rest of the summer in paradise!
