I had a unique opportunity recently to list a house that many, MANY people had been eyeing for years!
It was an abandoned, funky, tear-down of a place on a huge, flat, sunny lot in one of the most desirable neighborhoods in Bellingham.
The seller owned it free and clear and was ready to cash out. Naturally, the objective was to get the absolute most money possible in the shortest period of time.
I knew, from the moment I got the call about listing this house, that there would be an ARMY of buyers ready to fight over it! So rare, so exceptional despite the condition of the house, that this was a PERFECT candidate to run an “auction-style” listing.
Here’s how I did it:
The seller and I agreed to list the house roughly $50,000 below a reasonable “fair market value.” This would boost the attention like a shot of nitrous oxide and have people crawling all over it from day 1.
In addition to the low price, we also made it widely known that we’d look at offers only after 5 days on the market.
This gave everyone time to get their money together, bring their contractors by, visit the City planning department, etc.
It was the equivalent of Apple announcing the release of the new iPhone well before — but not TOO far out — from it’s actual release/for sale date.
I did all the regular marketing I’d do for any listing, gave easy access to plat maps, disclosures, CC&R’s, the works.
Then we sat back and watched the frenzy!!!
With 1 hour to go before our deadline, we had 4 offers in.
In the final hour, we got EIGHT more!!! In the end, we reviewed 12 offers, and chose one that was all cash, no contingencies, buyer assumed all costs and responsibilities for the clean-up… and the price???
$64,000 over list price.
The Seller was ecstatic, so was the Buyer.
This does NOT work for all Bellingham properties, obviously. And it wouldn’t necessarily have worked for this one had we not priced it so aggressively, with the confidence that it would indeed get a flood of offers. That confidence came from intimate market knowledge for this particular property in its particular location.
But if you’ve got those bases covered, you can (and should!) absolutely run an auction-style listing in Bellingham!!!










