[5-DayForum] Vancouver, WA - Day 5

[James Fleming]

Vancouver, WA - Traffic today picked up.  By 5:00 PM there were 22 total
bidders for the two days who had left their names, phone numbers, and entry
bids.  The house comps out at $417,500, has a 4-month-old appraisal of
$420,000, is realistically (I thought) listed at $379,900 and the 5-Day
minimum bid was set at $189,500.
 
Bidding started at 7:00 PM.  3 people did not answer their phones.  6 people
dropped out in the first round. 5 people dropped out in the second round.
Nobody dropped in the third round.  1 dropped in the fourth round. 5 dropped
in the fifth round.  Two people battled back and forth for seven more
rounds.  The high bidder's bid was $261,500, about $70,000 lower than
minimum target, 62% of the appraisal, and 69% of the listed price.  The
round-robin took 4 hours.  Advertising budget was $762.
 
Tomorrow the seller and I will go over the scenario and decide on our plan
of action from here.  First on the agenda is to decide whether to attempt to
negotiate with the high bidder a compromise somewhere between the high bid
and the seller's re-considered lowest acceptable price.  Failing this, we
will make a call to the lender, offer in hand, to explore the possibility of
a short sale.  Although I have a great deal of experience with short sales,
I've not proposed one under these circumstances before.  It doesn't quite
fit the usual parameters.
 
More tomorrow.  I need to give this all more thought.  As for the 5-Day
method itself, in my opinion it worked perfectly.  The final high bid was a
disappointment, but it had nothing to do with the 5-Day method.  The market
is the market.
 
Jim F.
 
 
 
  _____  

From:
5-dayforum-bounces+jamesfleming=cbseal.com at mailman.howtosellyourhomein5days.
com
[mailto:5-dayforum-bounces+jamesfleming=cbseal.com at mailman.howtosellyourhome
in5days.com] On Behalf Of Frederika Valle
Sent: Sunday, November 04, 2007 10:38 PM
To: 5-dayforum at mailman.howtosellyourhomein5days.com
Subject: [5-DayForum] The results are in....
 
A couple of weeks ago I found out about Bill's book and I offered my
services to a person who called me because they were interested in selling
their property. Well, I've been reading the posts and studying the book,
taking into account all information and here's how the auction went....
 
I started advertising a week in advance instead of the Wednesday before. We
staged the house (we got a lot of complements on the staging). I got all of
my calls including more on Saturday and Sunday. I put ads in the Pennysaver,
Los Angeles Times, Daily News, La Opinion (spanish Newspaper), some online
websites, flyered some parking lots, and on  Saturday and Sunday we had 5
people standing on various street corners holding huge signs that said
"House Auction Today". I spent at least $500 in advertising; more than
likely more than that.
 
Judging from the number of bidding rules handouts I had left over, on
Saturday I had about 38 people visit (not including the family members that
they came with) and on Sunday I had about 40. Sunday at 5pm I had 21 bidders
on the bid sheets. Come Round- Robin time, 8 of those people were
unreachable including two people who wrote down fax #'s even though I told
them that I needed a number that would be good for 8pm (why write down your
name if you really don't want to bid?). After the first 2 rounds about 5
people dropped out. Then it eventually came down to two main bidders. 
 
The home was an older home built in 1950, so it has smaller rooms and
closets; however, it was recently upgraded and it has a large patio with a
swimming pool and a finished garage. It is also located in a prime
residential area. The way that the book tells you to price the home is 50% -
$500 from what you actually would like as your minimum. I saw forum postings
saying that most people got 20-30% less than their desired . I took this
into account and added another $50k to the starting bid. Unfortunately the
bidders were still $100k less than the reserve that the owner wanted.
Because of this, the owner wasn't able to accept the highest bid.
Realistically the owner was still a little high, but the bidders were also
very low. People know that the market is not so great  and are really trying
to get as much as possible for as little as possible.
 
Reflecting on all of this---- With the market the way it is, this is not the
way to go right now. It's a great method and might still work in emerging
markets where things are starting to go up, but where things are leveling
off or going down, it's not the time. Now, if you have equity in your home
that will allow flexibility with numbers, this still could work for you as
well. But for those who MUST SELL NOW and need a price that's close to
market, save yourself the advertising costs! Try to lease option or hold on
to the property if at all possible. Some good things did come out of the
process: I got the experience; I handed out a few business cards for
investing; I got some new names for my buyer's list; and I even got a few
offers from people to stage their property for them!
 
Now I must bid adieu, because I haven't slept much in the last 4 days due to
the auction preparation!
 
-Rikki
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