Donald Trump's childhood home hits the market and there's an Aussie connection

A piece of Donald Trump’s history is set for auction in New York just three weeks before next month’s presidential election.

The five-bedroom, four-bathroom Tudor house at 85-15 Wareham Place is listed as the Republican nominee’s birthplace and believed to be his childhood home of four years.

A former Ray White auctioneer from Australia, Duncan Schieb, will be auctioning the former Trump home.

The property has been promoted as the “childhood home of presidential candidate”, with interest from prospective buyers in the high-$US900,000 to early $US1 million, Misha Haghani of Paramount Realty told Domain.

The humble childhood home is a stark contrast to his luxurious primary residence – a $US100 million penthouse in Manhattan’s Trump Tower with views of Central Park. 

Formerly listed for $US1.65 million, the property now suggests an opening bid of just $US849,000 at the October 19 auction at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York, according to agency Paramount Realty USA.

“Obviously there are some that would ascribe a premium to the property given its connection to Trump and then there are those who probably wouldn’t – the latter group would obviously not prevail in the auction,” Mr Haghani said.

“At the end of the day, it’s still just real estate – a highly desirable English Tudor in the fantastic neighbourhood of Jamaica Estates.

“Due to (a) divorce it is pretty much a must sell.”

The house has a living room with fireplace, formal dining room, basement with a bonus room and a summer kitchen. There is also a five-car driveway with a two-car garage.

Mr Haghani said the empty-nester vendors had no relationship to the Trumps, and have lived in the home for 10 years.

“There’s no point in one person living alone in a five bedroom house, which is the reason for the sale,” he said.

“They have opted to auction the property in order to control the timeline of sale and ensure to the marketplace that they are committed to selling the property.”

Mr Schieb, a former corporate auctioneer at Ray White, had been working in the real estate industry in New York for the past six years.

Rather than going headlong into sales, the New York-based Australian said he started a video production company and supplied high-end videos to the real estate industry across the US.

He also assisted Australians who had relocated to New York in finding apartments to rent or buy.

Mr Schieb said he was now bringing his knowledge and marketing expertise back to real estate in a sales capacity. The main adjustments was the real estate language as well as the legal and financing aspects.

“It is a litigious country so you need to be ultra careful in how you speak about a property,” Mr Schieb said.

“Auctions have generally had a bad stigma in the US as they are generally executed poorly and were aligned with foreclosure.

“I believe the New York luxury property market is ready for auctions as per the Australian way of execution and we are in the process of rolling out an auction format for 2017 based on the highly successful Australian model.”