On a December night in New York, in a ballroom at the Pendry Manhattan West hotel, one of the longstanding questions in Washington real-estate circles—a subject of much dinner-party gossip and media speculation—was finally ready to be answered. “And now, concluding the sale,” said the auctio neer, Frank Trunzo, “we have a magnificent French-chateau-inspired estate in Potomac, Maryland.” The event was an “end-of-year” sale of luxury real estate by Concierge Auctions, and the property in question was the house formerly owned by Dan Snyder. For those who have followed the saga, the outlines are familiar: Snyder built the estate in the early aughts, after buying the main plot of land from King Hussein and Queen Noor of Jordan, and first tried to sell the property privately in 2018, not long before his ownership of the Washington football team began to founder. In 2023, Snyder listed it publicly, for $49 million—which would have made it the most expensive sale in Washington-area history. After finding no takers, he donated the property to the American Cancer Society, which decided to take it to auction. Exactly 1,046 days after it was publicly listed, the question of whether Dan Snyder’s onetime home would ever sell had, at long last, reached a climax. “There’s strong interest,” said Trunzo, calling the acquisition “an extraordinary legacy opportunity.” “Let’s start the bidding.” Snyder’s ownership of the property had been controversial from the start. A whistleblower objected after Snyder cut down a 200-foot-wide cluster of trees in a scenic easement along the CO Canal National Historic Park, opening up views of the Potomac River from his property. According to an investigation conducted by the inspector general at the Department of the Interior, Snyder had first offered the Park Service $25,000 for the necessary exemption—an offer the organization rejected. After a three-year campaign, he finally got approval. But the inspector general found that the Park Service hadn’t followed proper procedures: No environmental review was conducted, nor was Montgomery County consulted about the case. As part of a settlement, Snyder paid $37,000 to the county’s forest-conservation bank and agreed to replant native trees in the easement. The estate has a French limestone exterior and slate mansard roof. Photograph by Geoffrey Green with VSI Aerial. If that incident reflected a certain unrestrained ambition, the house he constructed was no less grand. A collaboration between architect John Ike, interior designer Geoffrey Bradfield, and Horizon Builders, the 13-acre estate featured a limestone-clad, 25,000-square-foot main house with a theater and wine cellar; a three-level guesthouse with 11 garage bays; and a 4,500-square-foot staff residence. In March 2024, after he had reduced his original asking price to $34.9 million, Snyder donated the property to the society: his wife, Tanya, is a cancer survivor. The organization cut the price even further, to $29.9 million. But as Sarah Hake, a Compass agent, told the Washington Post: “At that price point, buyers are looking for a turnkey solution.” Some, she added, might even consider the property a teardown. Photograph by Derek Vee Cue the auction. In 2008, the Kaufmann House in Palm Springs, a celebrated modernist residence designed by architect Richard Neutra, traded hands at Christie’s for $16.84 million. Even though the sale fell through, it signaled the rise of luxury real-estate auctions. In the same year that the Kaufmann was listed at Christie’s, Chad Roffers cofounded Concierge Auctions, with the ambition, he says, “to fundamentally change the way trophy, one-of-a-kind properties are sold.” Over the years, says Roffers, Concierge—now partly owned by Sotheby’s—has compiled a database of high-net-worth individuals, with 16,000 past clients, 200,000 subscribers, and algorithms and predictive analytics that help match buyers to properties. In December, Concierge sold properties alongside cars, high-end jewelry, and watches during Abu Dhabi Collectors’ Week. In 2023, it auctioned off a three-house compound in Georgetown —Jacqueline Kennedy had lived in one of them—for $15.1 million. The magic of an auction? To create urgency, Roffers says. And to finalize a sale within 60 days. Compass’s Cara Pearlman—who, along with Han Peruzzi (also with Compass), was a listing agent for the Snyder property—said the showings before the auction revealed a diverse set of potential bidders: some thinking of it as a primary residence, others as a second home, and even a few organizations eyeing it as an event space. Five properties sold at the end-of-year auction—including a 68-acre estate in Stowe, Vermont ($7.95 million), and a Fort Worth castle built by the Texas Rangers’ owner ($6.72 million)—before the action turned to the Snyder house. The opening bid was $2.5 million. Trunzo, the auctioneer, a spry fellow with a silver goatee, wore a dark-blue suit with a matching tie. He manned a podium, flanked by two screens displaying the bids, in front of an audience of a hundred or so: a bejeweled and suited crowd. One couple had come as bidders, and they entered the fray at $4.5 million. Things escalated quickly: $7.5 million, then $8 million, then $11 million, all of the advances coming from the phone bank, a table manned by auction staff who kept an open line with remote bidders. In the end, it turned into a two-bidder race. “Let’s try a little harder, see if we can get it done,” Trunzo implored a phone-bank member as he worked to keep the momentum going. “I have incredible patience.” “They tell me the more that you pay, the more that you enjoy it,” he continued. Nearly 28 minutes later, Trunzo finally brought down the gavel. Winning bid: $11.84 million, for a total of $13.26 million, including the buyer’s premium, a 12-percent fee paid to Concierge: not that much more than the $8.64 million Snyder had paid for the original plot of land. The Snyders earned what was likely a sizable tax write-off for their donation, and the cancer society will use the proceeds of the sale for research and patient support. After the auction, the lone in-person bidders made for the elevator and reflected on their loss. They live in New York but have family in Potomac, and they had conceived of the estate as a second home. “We went to see it,” they said. “The reality is it needs a lot of work.” Starting from top left: The office, home theater, commercial-grade kitchen, bedroom suite with Potomac views. Photographs by Derek Vee.   The couple was deterred by the renovation and maintenance costs but still had thought the property would go for between $15 million and $20 million. “People don’t like Dan in the area, so I think that played into it,” they said. Had they made a mistake not bidding higher? Their response echoed what Pearlman later said: that multiple potential buyers had gotten in touch after the auction, lamenting that they hadn’t made an offer. “I think we’re going to regret letting this one go.” This article appears in the February 2026 issue of Washingtonian.The post How an Auction House Finally Sold Dan Snyder’s Controversial Mansion first appeared on Washingtonian. ...read more read less