Home once listed at $10.9M will start bidding at $3.75M to $5.75M

With nary a neighbor in sight, an 80-acre estate in Bend is going to auction as a way to set the price after being on the market for about a year. 

The property had been priced at $10.9 million, then dropped to $9.9 million in January, but the sellers decided to list it with an auction company Concierge Auctions and Coldwell Banker Bain in Bend. Bidding will begin July 11 online at conciergeauctions.com and end July 24, according to a statement by the auction company.  The starting bid  is $3.75 million to $5.75 million.

The owner is listed in Deschutes County tax records as Byron Garth. 

Since the property is so unique, a bidding process is a good way to set value, said Grant Ludwick, The Agency Bend managing partner and principal broker.   

“When a house like this gets put on the market, it often doesn’t have anything to compare price to,” Ludwick said. “The starting auction price might not be the price it sells at. The idea behind an auction is to attract multiple buyers and get them emotionally hooked and then you might get a higher price.”

In recent years, Bend is seeing a higher percentage of single-family homes selling for more than $1 million. As many as a quarter to a third of the sales are for more than $1 million, according to the monthly housing report by Beacon Appraisal Group LLC.  While the price tag for the Dodds Road home was among the higher priced properties in Bend, it was by no means the highest. 

There was one that sold in 2023 for $15 million. It was an eight-bedroom, nine-bath, 14,666-square-foot home in Sisters on Jordan Road. The 190-acre property came furnished with a ranch manager home, a barn with a saloon, a recreation barn with a basketball court, a race track and fishing in a private pond.

Concierge Auctions said in an email to The Bulletin the sellers wanted to put themselves in the driver’s seat by putting the property up for auction.  With floor-to0-ceiling glass walls giving views of untouched federal Bureau of Land Management land on two sides, real estate professionals call the property a retreat.

The property features a 6,321-square-foot main home with five ensuite bedrooms and six bathrooms. It is gated and also has a detached caretaker’s home, guest units scattered across the landscape, a pool and poolhouse, an entertainment pavilion and  a 10,000-square-foot, climate-controlled garage with room enough for more than 20 vehicles, boats, RVs,  or airplane accommodations.  There’s a sand volleyball court and a private shooting range, a fully automated greenhouse for year-round cultivation. 

And, the property includes water rights on about 20 acres, she said. Currently, grass hay is growing in the fields.

The home was designed by Mussa & Associations in Sedona, Arizona.