Beware the penalty clause. There was a penalty clause when we liquidated the Peachtree Plaza in Atlanta, GA a little over 30 years ago that stated we would have 30 days to conduct our sale and we had to be out before 12pm on exactly the 30th day. The architect, whom had designed the renaissance buildings in Detroit, was the person responsible for imposing the penalty clause and no matter how much bargaining we did he would never allow us to extend the sale. We later found out his reasoning for not granting us an extension was the sale would delay construction and any delay in construction would mean a delay in being able to have a full occupancy which would bring in more profit for the hotel than the sale of the rest of the furniture.
Being we had to be out the hotel when the 30th day came we had already decided we were going to sell any furniture we were unable to sell out in front of the hotel on the sidewalk, this definitely didn’t go as smoothly as planned. The day we had to move out all of the furniture the fire alarm rang for a fire drill we weren’t informed of while we were moving out the furniture. This wasn’t any ordinary fire drill either, this was a full drill conducted by the fire department. The firefighters were required to perform all the actions they would be required to do during a real fire in a building of this size. There were firemen on the fire escapes, fire men checking all the rooms it was a really thorough job. Getting all the furniture outside to the front sidewalk during a fire drill was chaotic enough but just imagine what it was like outside of the hotel. The amount of people outside due to the fire alarm caused massive confusion. Buyers couldn’t even tell who the sales people were and some even attempted to by some of the furniture from strangers by offering their money to people who were just walking the strip. In the end the sale was profitable so maybe it was a good thing I didn’t notice the penalty clause as otherwise I wouldn’t have signed the contract but overlooking the penalty clause is definitely something I wouldn’t recommend you do at home, the results can be disastrous.
If you would be interested in a book with anecdotes such as these let me know in a comment, I would appreciate it. The stories published here are still works in progress so they may be a little rough around the edges but I feel they should allow you to get a good feel of what the content of the book would be.
Clem D. Long
Auctioneer and Hotel Liquidator
Founder and former C.O.B. of National Content Liquidators
Third generation of Auctioneers
Being we had to be out the hotel when the 30th day came we had already decided we were going to sell any furniture we were unable to sell out in front of the hotel on the sidewalk, this definitely didn’t go as smoothly as planned. The day we had to move out all of the furniture the fire alarm rang for a fire drill we weren’t informed of while we were moving out the furniture. This wasn’t any ordinary fire drill either, this was a full drill conducted by the fire department. The firefighters were required to perform all the actions they would be required to do during a real fire in a building of this size. There were firemen on the fire escapes, fire men checking all the rooms it was a really thorough job. Getting all the furniture outside to the front sidewalk during a fire drill was chaotic enough but just imagine what it was like outside of the hotel. The amount of people outside due to the fire alarm caused massive confusion. Buyers couldn’t even tell who the sales people were and some even attempted to by some of the furniture from strangers by offering their money to people who were just walking the strip. In the end the sale was profitable so maybe it was a good thing I didn’t notice the penalty clause as otherwise I wouldn’t have signed the contract but overlooking the penalty clause is definitely something I wouldn’t recommend you do at home, the results can be disastrous.
If you would be interested in a book with anecdotes such as these let me know in a comment, I would appreciate it. The stories published here are still works in progress so they may be a little rough around the edges but I feel they should allow you to get a good feel of what the content of the book would be.
Clem D. Long
Auctioneer and Hotel Liquidator
Founder and former C.O.B. of National Content Liquidators
Third generation of Auctioneers
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