KANSAS CITY, Mo. – You still have a chance to buy a big Ward Parkway mansion, but it may cost more than you expected.
The big house at 6315 Ward Parkway went on the auction block Thursday afternoon. It could have been the chance of a lifetime to live the lifestyles of the rich and famous, but no one would match the bank's opening bid.
People showed up with hopes of buying, or seeing someone buy, a Ward Parkway mansion on the cheap. About 35 people gathered on the courthouse steps for the auction, and ten had signed in to bid.
The auctioneer opened it up by saying, “…Opens the bidding at $1,154,000."
As he waited for someone to bid, it became going, going…still there. The auction was anti-climatic.
"Yeah, I'm disappointed. I had to drive all the way down here for that," said Josh Aquino.
Since no one bid against the bank, the house goes back to the bank.
We asked Aquino what he was willing to bid. "I'd say under eight-fifty. It needs a lot of work,” he said.
Aaron Thomas was one of the ten people who signed in to bid. He and his partners from Vizion Properties hoped to rehab the famous home.
"My contractor said it would cost about 600-grand to bring it up to the right standards to sell it as it is with its historical value. But you could just bulldoze it and build a pretty nice house for six hundred grand, too,” said Thomas.
The landmark mansion was formerly owned by Richard Bloch, the co-founder of H & R Block. It was sold two years ago, and the new owners started to rip out the interior. They had planned to raze the home and rebuild on the land, but they defaulted on the mortgage.
This auction attracted more attention than auctioneer Steve Mustoe usually sees. He said, “Usually it's fairly routine, there are no bidders. It's a lonely job."
The auction took the house from the owners, gave it to the bank, and cleared the liens on the note. Now someone will still have a chance to live there.
Look for a "For Sale" sign to be planted in the huge yard at 6315 Ward Parkway sometime soon.
