Sunday, April 29

Update: McLean Housing Bubble - *** Failed Auction? ***

It appears that the auctions for this house was a failure as this week a For Sale sign once again appeared in front of the house. (Note: it is possible that there was an auction buyer who is now trying to flip the house himself.)


According to the website listed on the sign, the selling price is currently $815,000.


One reason I suspect that the house did not sell was the lofty expectation that the flippers had when they first started trying to sell this house. Here is a snapshot from the withdrawn listing:

Spectacular whole house renovation includes 4 bedrooms and 4 fabulous baths, plus a 2 car garage. Plus, a major price reduction from $1,250,000 to $825,000. Nice corner lot with plenty of expansion room. - Paton Real Estate
Over a million for this house. They must have been crazy. I suspect that they current owners are in a bind in that they cannot get any offers that match what they paid for the house, not to mention all the money that they spent renovating it.

Anyway, new owners or not, clearly there is a problem in McLean in that this house cannot find an owner interested in keeping it. Then there is the house next to it which is also on sale, and then the four others within a block that are also for sale. What a mess.

The house's auction website is located here.


"Acceptable to seller" is the key problem.

Previous post:
McLean Housing Bubble - Auction - 1 April 2007

2 comments:

FRANK LL0SA Va Broker- BLOG.FranklyRealty.com said...

Hey Fred,
"Acceptable to seller" Auctions are what I call "Fake Auctions"

Just like Short Sales are "Fake Listings" (see post)

Basically these Auctions are marketing tricks to see if they can get some fool to bite. Heck , why not start the price at $328,930?

What a steal!

Heck You can get a DVD player on Ebay, the starting price is ... $1!

I hate this stuff. Makes Realtors look bad.

Frank
25 year former resident of McLean
Broker Blog.FranklyRealty.com

Fred Fry said...

Thanks for your comment confirming that the auction as setup is a scam.

Seems that it did not work in this case with the bank being the current owner.