A Leading Auction House Plans for its Future in a Stronger Economy

Just as the home building indus-try is in transition, so, too, is the nation’s largest real estate auction house that benefited mightily from housing’s downturn but is already thinking about its next moves once the industry recovers.

When Irvine, Calif.–based Real Estate Disposition Corp. (REDC) agreed to acquire Commerce Title and its retail branches offering title insurance from The Pulte Group in December, it positioned that purchase as being complementary to its auction business. “Our goal is to close all of our auctions in an expedient way,” explains Robert Friedman, REDC’s chairman. Having Commerce in its arsenal to move these auctions through “will certainly help that.”

Commerce fleshes out REDC’s portfolio of business units that already included a brokerage (Red Crown Realty), and divisions for asset management and valuations. Friedman says his company wants to expand Commerce’s market reach, possibly by offering its services to other companies. REDC is also considering branching out into the mortgage business, but not until 2011. “We need some cyclical businesses to go along with our non-cyclical ones,” says Friedman.