The auctions definitely generate interest! I wish you the best on the sale of your property!

Did part 2 of this materialize? I have a flip property that I’m having a hard time selling (time of the year doesn’t help) and am strongly considering the auction format.

Great input – thanks for sharing. In fact, you stole some of my thunder for next week’s follow up post! LOL!

In the meantime just wanted to say two quick things:

* I completely agree about the advertising methods…the classified ads just don’t work anymore and glad that people are talking about that.

* For private sellers trying to sell a residence that may have little to no equity in this market, this method can present its challenges for sure. For rehabbers (the primary focus of this article), if they focus strategy on buying low, staying within budget on rehab that allows them to provide GREAT value (better features than other homes nearby) for a competitive expected price, this can work really well!

There is a website regarding this method,
http://www.howtosellyourhomein5days.com/

I sold my house at 12% less than asking, which is better than what many recent members have implied their highest bids are. An agent would take about 6%, adn do all the advertising. I chose this method of selling oven using an agent only because I refused to be tied into the contracts being offered here locally.

You all need to remember that people sell at auction hoping/expecting to get a higher price, while people BUY at auction, hoping/expecting to pay much less than market value. And typically, for the houses in the recent market, few of the members have come close to what they want or need, and did not sell.

The bids in this method are NOT sealed. They are on a sheet of paper for everyone to see. Everything is transparent and right out in the open.

The advertising method is changing. If you read the archives of that forum, you will see few people having success with newspaper advertising. Using internet sites (I had ONE response from Craigslist for my second house) bandit signs, fliers to the local area, etc have been more successful.
Using this method, people do not “lower” their offer, they drop out of the bidding.
His book, even his website, gives info on how to do this. The book is availabale at local bookstores, and I think is about $15.00.
Even if one decides to sell standard FSBO, wwhich is how I did sell my house, the abook gives all the info –or most of it–on how to do that.

For up to the minute info on these sales, go to the website and read the recent activity. Then go back into the archives.
IIRC, many people who have sold recently have taken a huge cut from their listed/hoped for price.
I won’t rain on your parade by answering your last question generally, but in my two cases, as I said, on the first, 30K less than lowest expected market sales price, I moved into it. On the second, 20K less, because I really did not want to rent, I did sell, only because the buyers increased their offer by 6K, and I had been considering lowering my price. If they had not, I would have rented it, and planned to keep it rented for at least 3 years.
People doing this are to make clear that the bids are OFFERS, and nothing is binding until papers are signed. I had that on every piece of paper so that no one could come back later and say they did not know. I did not advertise mine as “will be sold to highest bidder,” but rather, “will be OFFERED to best bidder” I made it very clear that there was a reserve price (in accordance w/state law)that unless specifically noted that there is no reserve, there is a reserve.
Ofgift