Upside Down Auction… Not For the Faint of Heart

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!