Specialties
Not every property is sold.Some have to be resolved.
A career that moves faster than a listing can. A buyer who lives on another continent. An estate with beneficiaries who do not agree. DeCaro maintains dedicated practices for the circumstances a conventional sale was never built to answer.
A trade. A tour. A production schedule. The house still has to sell.
Careers in sport and entertainment move on timelines the luxury market does not respect. The decision usually sits with a business manager or counsel rather than the client, on a deadline nobody chose. DeCaro sets the auction date before the campaign begins, so the sale fits the calendar instead of the other way around.
On privacy, we are straightforward about what an auction is. The campaign is public by design, because that is how competition is created and how the price gets established. Everything else is not. Bidder identities, financial qualification and the terms of the sale are held in confidence, our team works under non-disclosure as a matter of course, and we do not use a client's name to market ourselves afterward.
Who we work with
- Business managers
- Agents
- Entertainment counsel
- Athletes and entertainers
- Team and league executives
- Private wealth advisors
The buyer is rarely from down the street.
Buyers come from wherever the money is, which is to say from anywhere. We keep no list of countries we work in and no map of where a property will and will not be marketed. If a qualified buyer exists for your property, our job is to find them, and we do not much care which passport they hold.
Behind that is a team and a partner network that lives, works and transacts across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia, with the language, the local counsel and the relationships that cross-border transactions actually require.
Every campaign is syndicated worldwide through global luxury platforms, international brokerage networks and relationships built over 40 years, so a ranch in Wyoming reaches qualified buyers on every continent the week it launches. Cross-border bidders are prequalified and their funds verified before bidding opens, so the winner is ready on auction day regardless of where they live or bank.
Our auctions typically close in 30 days or less. Where a jurisdiction requires more, such as a fideicomiso in Mexico or local registration elsewhere, we set the closing date with local counsel before the campaign begins so the seller knows it going in.*
* Typical closing is 30 days or less. International closings may extend where local jurisdiction requires.
An appraisal is an opinion. An auction is a record.
A fiduciary is not simply trying to get a good number. They are trying to reach a defensible one, on a known timeline, in a way that can be explained to everyone with an interest in the outcome. A competitive auction answers all of it at once.
- 01Value is discovered in open competition, not asserted by a third party.
- 02Carrying costs stop on a date set before the campaign begins.
- 03Every element of the exposure is documented for the file.
- 04The fiduciary did not set the price. The market did.
Who we work with
- Estate planning attorneys
- Probate attorneys
- Trust and estate litigators
- Executors and personal representatives
- Corporate and individual trustees
- Bank trust departments
- Family offices
- Wealth managers and RIAs
- CPAs and tax advisors
- Guardians and conservators
- Planned giving officers
- Land trusts and conservancies
- Charitable foundations
Estates that cross borders
An estate holding property in several states, or in several countries, is rarely one problem. It is a different set of rules, taxes, title conventions and timelines in each place, all converging on one personal representative. We run those simultaneously rather than sequentially, with local counsel in each market, so the estate is not held open for years while one asset at a time is resolved.
Charitable and conservation dispositions
Universities, hospitals, foundations and land trusts increasingly receive real property they are not built to sell, and the gift carries a duty to establish fair value. The same process applies, and the written record matters more here than almost anywhere, because the institution has to answer to its board, its donors and its auditors.
A price neither side set, and neither side controls.
When two parties cannot agree on value, no third-party opinion settles it. Competitive bidding by qualified buyers produces a number that is simply what the market paid, on a date the court or the parties can plan around.
Who we work with
- Matrimonial and family law counsel
- Forensic accountants
- Divorce financial analysts
- Court-appointed receivers
- Bankruptcy trustees
- Partnership dissolutions
Every campaign ends with a document.
At the close of every engagement, DeCaro delivers a written record of the campaign and its results. Global exposure, campaign engagement, active inquiries, property previews, registered bidders, and the result itself. It is prepared so counsel or a fiduciary can place it directly in the file. When someone asks how the price was reached, the answer is a document rather than a recollection.
“In 16 years, I never understood why I would ever use you. Until now.”
Sonny Saito
Managing Director, Trusts & Estates and Sports & Entertainment
Thirty years across institutional finance and luxury real estate. Merrill Lynch, Drexel Burnham Lambert, founding member of Canyon Partners, nine years at Hilton & Hyland in Beverly Hills, and five years as chief executive of Christie's International Real Estate in Japan. Stanford Graduate School of Business. Based in Los Angeles.
Tell us the situation. We will tell you whether an auction fits.
Every engagement begins with a confidential assessment of the property and the circumstances, at no cost and with no obligation. It covers what a realistic outcome looks like, what timeline is achievable, and what the process asks of you. It also says plainly when an auction is not the right answer, which is sometimes the case.