Real LI

Looking for something to grace the walls of your North Fork home? For an estimated bid of $80,000 to $120,000, you might be able to snag “The Dock,” a circa-1927 oil painting by Irving Ramsey Wiles, created at “The Mooring,” his summer home and studio in Indian Neck, Peconic.

Wiles summered at the home from 1895 on, and many of his paintings took inspiration from the scenery there. This work depicts the artist’s daughter Gladys on the family dock overlooking Peconic Bay, with Shelter Island in the distance. The painting is part of Doyle New York’s American Art Auction on May 20.

The Long Island Business News reports today that auctioneers have found a cottage industry in the housing crisis -- approach homeowners who are late on their mortgage payments and auction their homes. “It’s mostly for non-distressed sellers who want to speed up the sale of their properties,” says Jeff Hubert, who works for Chicago-based Sheldon Good & Co., which "has sold $9 billion in property via auction since the company was formed in 1973." He goes on to tell the News: “It passes savings on to the buyer. The seller avoids carrying costs and gets his money out.”

If you happened to be in Glen Cove over the weekend, you might have seen a human banana – maybe even three of them – hanging around the streets hawking the auction of a $1.4 million Lattingtown home.

The costumes were an attention-getting tactic from a group of real estate investors, who approach sellers with an option to buy their homes. The investors then market the property and try to make a profit by getting buyers who might pay for above the option price.

A pair of Long Island landscaper brothers in the investment group, Matthew and Daniel Schreiber, peeled the idea off investors from Florida, where the housing market has slipped much more than New York’s.

"We went the extra level . . . in this kind of market to bring in more clientele," said Daniel Schreiber. "It wasn’t necessary in the past."

One costume used in Florida was the banana, and the brothers said there’s no deep explanation for why the group of investors settled on a fruit. "It could have been SpongeBob Squarepants," Matthew Schreiber said.

The Schreibers expect out-of-the-box marketing to bear fruit in their other real estate efforts.

They say they think the bananas attracted more bidders for the auction on the Lattingtown house, held Sunday.

When asked about the number of bidders, Daniel Schreiber was reticent. "A bunch," he said.

Newsday photo / Michael Ach

It's hard to believe, but the controversial Morpurgo house actually sold today at auction, for $1.46 million. Read all about it here.

Newsday Photo / Alan Raia