bid on the city

The times has an interesting piece on it today:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/realestate/12auction.html

Tina
(Brooklyn broker)

Hal sounds scared...

Some real estate brokers believe the downside of auctions outweighs the advantages.

“Auctions are a risky idea,” said Hall F. Willkie, the president of Brown Harris Stevens, who thinks it will be challenging to find enough qualified buyers in this market. “Culturally, in this country real estate auctions connote sheriff-on-the-porch distress sales. It’s not a way to market a property to its best advantage. And if the auction is not successful, it really taints the property.”

How else do you clear 3 years of inventory?

it all depends on the reserve price

I agree with columbia, but there was also a blurb in the article from one of the sellers that were going to list with bidonthecity saying that he was thinking not to put any reserve price and just see what the bids were for, so that he would now what the real price of his apt. was...

is there website up yet?

until lots of property starts to move we're all in a huge bind - so any path out is an interesting effort. Brokers have to stop saying no to lowering prices, and changing methods - or this stalemate will just drag on and on.

The Times article say this guys were going to auction 10 properties per day. Per the numbers seen in urbandigs widget, if they manage to steer a high percentage of those into contract, they would be making an impact in the market. I mean, the volume has been very low the last few months.