A Naples mansion previously owned by professional golfer Rocco Mediate will go up for auction Saturday.
The six-bedroom, eight-bathroom luxury home, at 16770 Prato Way, sits on a corner lot overlooking the 15th hole at Talis Park Golf Club.
Mediate — who has won six times on the PGA Tour, three times on the Champions Tour and won the Senior PGA Championship in 2016 — built the two-story, Tuscan-style home in 2004 and lived there for almost a decade before the property was seized by SunTrust Bank.
In 2013, Mediate told David Feherty during an interview on the Golf Channel that he lost the home due to financial hardships.
“The house in Naples went bye-bye. Bank stuff happened there. It was a whole nightmare,” Mediate, 55, a Pennsylvania native, said in the interview.
Within a year of Mediate losing the home, Jay and Amy Oyer, of Naples, snagged the home for $2 million, according to property records.
Amy Oyer said they never lived in the home but purchased it while it was in bankruptcy with the intention of flipping it.
“We had the vision of updating it. We saw it as a diamond in the rough — structurally sound but just needed a little TLC,” Amy Oyer said.
Renovations included adding a master bedroom and full bath downstairs and laying down hardwood flooring. They also updated the counters and added a wine room.
“It had a very Tuscan look. While we kept a lot of the Tuscan look, we made it a little more contemporary,” Amy Oyer said.
The home has been on the market for a little over two years, with a most recent asking price of $3.2 million.
Amy Oyer said they have seen a few potential buyers over the years, but Hurricane Irma threw a wrench into the last potential deal.
So the Oyers decided to send the property to auction.
Elite Auctions, based in Naples, will conduct the auction on Saturday at the 7,167-square-foot-home.
“I met (the president of Elite Auctions), liked him, liked his business model and was intrigued by and wanted to see how it all played out,” Amy Oyer said.
This will be the first time the Oyers have put a home up for auction.
“A lot of times the market doesn’t always procure a buyer,” said Randy Haddaway, president of Elite Auctions. “(The auction) creates a sense of urgency.”
According to Haddaway, Elite Auctions steps in after sellers have become worn out waiting for their property to sell — usually when season slows down in the summer and a lot of luxury real estate comes off the market.
“These are luxury properties that are not in foreclosure and the sellers are in excellent financial health,” he said. “A lot of these sellers with luxury real estate say, 'I’m ready to move on. I’m ready to put the cash in my pocket.”
Elite Auctions held an auction in Westlake, Texas, on May 12 of former Major League Baseball player Mark Teixeira's Vaquero estate.
In the same neighborhood, the company also sold Austrian crystal heiress Vanessa Swarovski's estate last June.
Preregistration for the auction begins at 9 a.m. Saturday. Bidding will start at 11 a.m. and is expected to last 20 minutes.
“Once the hammer comes down at the price it’s at, the property is officially under contract,” Haddaway said. “It will settle within 30 days, and the seller is able to move on.”