Upside Down Auction… Not For the Faint of Heart
By: Nate Moch, Zillow Product Team Lead, Mortgages | June 4, 2008
Tough times call for drastic measures. A friend of mine in Bothell, WA is trying something new to build interest in his house. He is having an auction… sort of. The “Bothell Countdown” is the brainchild of Justin Wilcox and is something like a reverse auction where instead of the price going up over time, it goes down. He is starting the price around market value and will work the price down in $10k - $5k increments each week, building publicity around the house’s Web site and sending out email updates to prospective buyers along the way. Ultimately he plans to sell the house the same way anyone would (solicit bids, accept or reject them, etc.), the only difference being prospective buyers can pick the price they think the house is worth and wait until the price falls within that range. I have to give him credit for his ingenuity and balls of steel.
When I talked to Justin about his idea, he said he used Zillow and his Zestimate to help him pick the starting price. In fact, he even built a spreadsheet using the Zillow comparables data to get a better feel for the price per sqare foot averages in his neighborhood. I took a look at his calculations and am impressed that he is going to start at such a reasonable price when the auction has nowhere to go but down!
I will definitely be keeping my eye on the house… 19833 95th Ave NE, Bothell, WA 98011.
Good luck Justin!
- Stumble it!
- Categories: Real Estate, Real Estate Industry, Real Estate Oddities, Zestimate, Zillow
Comments
5 Comments so far
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Lauren Buchel on June 5, 2008 7:25 am
Please remove my home at 740 Skyline Drive in Barrington as it is no longer for sale. Thank you in advance.
lauren Buchel
CENTURY 21 Kreuser and Seiler
847-367-1171
David G from Zillow.com on June 5, 2008 8:30 am
Hi Lauren,
I have removed the posting. Please note however that it could be reposted because the listing is still advertised for sale by by Judy Stark on a visualtour website which feeds listings to Zillow. To ensure that it isn’t reposted on Zillow, please ask Judy to remove the listing from visualtour.com. You’ll find it here: http://tinyurl.com/5t34de.
Steve Simon on June 6, 2008 9:30 am
Not for the faint of heart is an understatement!
This would have me close to nervous breakdown; but, it should work!
Also if the person owned multiple properties or multiple properties were assembled for the reverse auction think of the interest they would generate as the carnival atmosphere spread
Upside Down House Update | Zillow® Blog on July 16, 2008 11:16 am
[...] the upside down house up for auction in Bothell? That’s the house that did a reverse auction of sorts, in which the price would drop each [...]
Wanda Rodgers on January 25, 2009 7:53 am
Please remove my home for sale. It is posted incorrectly as 5837 Beford Loop East. I have changed my mind about your site. It is too difficult to delete or change information. I am also a little wary of it.