The story is becoming all too familiar in many parts of the country. Since the real estate bubble has burst many homeowners are having trouble selling their homes. That’s an understatement. With so many home owners trying to sell, it has become cut-throat in the neighborhood.
All of us at some point have held a garage sale and had someone tear down our signs but this time it’s serious. With the competition for the few buyers mounting, owners and agents are ready to fight over the chance to get out from under the burden.
In some Florida subdivisions many neighborhoods now prohibit or severely limit open houses and signage all together. Complexes that are competing with new sales from builders and existing home resales from owners take us back to the days of the Hatfields & McCoys. Legal battles are ensuing and saboteurs are rising up from nowhere to derail any attempts to remotely bend such rules. This leaves many owners in such hostile neighborhoods with a serious question, how am I supposed to sell my home?
One couple in Bradenton, Florida is beating the system with an auction. Bonnie & Chuck Binkley are selling her home at 409 Sand Crane Court in Waterlefe Golf & River Country Club via a competitive bid auction. The auction runs online all month and concludes September 9th 2006 at 12:00pm with a live auction finale. How is this going to promote a cease-fire while bringing ink to their contracts?
Jay Bailey of Bailey's Realty & Estate Auctions explains how technology and auctions have become synonymous with selling. “ The online process allows us to show the home, register and qualify the bidder online. The bidders may virtually attend the live auction from anywhere in the world real-time. That means the buyers have everything they need to buy from the due diligence presentation except a pre sale walk-through. This approach minimizes signage and traffic. With 65-80% of all home searches beginning online, it only makes sense to sell online. We don’t need signs, we have technology.”
There is a preview for one day before the auction and that’s from 10:00am to 4:00pm. That’s really the only needed time for access to the actual property. With a local, statewide, national and international ad campaign from her auction company, Bonnie Binkley feels she has escaped the mob and cut to the front of the sales line. The bidding starts at $571,800.00 for her previously list priced property of $795,000.00. But Bonnie reminds us, in an auction it’s not where you start that matters but where you finish. For more information go to www.bidonproperties.com.
