Texas farm supply executive Chaz Neely is putting his Central Texas estate up for auction, seeking to sell it for nearly twice the amount he paid less than a year ago.
Sotheby’s Concierge Auctions will open bidding on February 13 for the property at 8536 Armstrong Road, located near Belton between Austin and Waco. The auction will conclude with a live event at The Biltmore Miami-Coral Gables in Florida on February 28. According to marketing materials, opening bids are expected to start around $2 million, while the seller and Kuper Sotheby’s International Realty agent Debbie Stevenson have set an asking price of $6 million.
The estate covers 13 acres along Salado Creek and features a two-story, French Provincial-style home with six bedrooms, seven bathrooms, seven fireplaces, an elevator, coffered ceilings, and a copper dome above the foyer. The house measures about 7,000 square feet.
The previous owners, H. Barton and Jean Jones, listed the property for $3.8 million in March last year. After hiring Stevenson and opting for an auction format through Concierge Auctions, initial bids opened at $2.1 million in June. Neely purchased the home at auction in July for just under $3.2 million—a figure that reportedly set a record sale price for Bell County.
Stevenson said Neely has since made extensive updates to the property: “We submitted it for the ModaMiami, which is the premier East Coast global auction platform for Sotheby’s — they do the really high-end cars at the same time — and the home was accepted,” she said.
Recent luxury auctions in Texas have sometimes resulted in final sales below original listing prices. For example, a Southlake mansion sold at auction last September for $14.2 million after being listed at $27.5 million; another property in Fort Worth fetched $6.7 million after previously asking $11.8 million.
Neely is known as owner of San Antonio Steel Company—the nation’s largest wholesale supplier of agricultural fencing—and is active in philanthropy alongside his wife Patricia through support of organizations such as the Texas Public Policy Foundation and Texas A&M University.
The couple’s San Antonio residence at 11 Inverness Boulevard is also currently listed for sale with Alison Neely Stone of Engel & Volkers San Antonio at an asking price of $7 million.
