Photo provided by Todd Talbot
Sean Combs, Puff Daddy, P.Diddy, etc., truly made his name—whichever one it is at the time—being an enterprising entrepreneur through various media and fashion formats.
Todd Talbot—or T.Talb, as we like to call him—creator and owner of iBidForAcent.com, is taking a Diddy-like approach to the auctioneering and real estate world. While owner/creator of iBidForAcent.com, Talbot also bought a $81,000 foreclosure then completely remodeled it, bringing its current appraisal value up to $125,000.
In most likely the first-ever auction of its kind on the Internet, Talbot launched a real estate penny auction for the 4-bedroom, 2-bath Glendale, Ariz. home.
Talbot explains that at 5 p.m. today, “Open bidding will end, and 20-second extended bidding will begin. At that point a 20-second timer clock will start a countdown. If someone bids during that time, the clock automatically re-sets for another 20 seconds. This will happen until no one bids during the 20-second period.”
After the 20-second period ends, the auction ends; the last registered bidder is then declared the winner.
The minimum for which the house can sell is $2,750. Talbot suggest that the winning bid could be as low as $5,000.
To keep the bidding from stalling due to the reserve, Talbot gave incentives. The person with the highest number of bids during the reserve period automatically gets $15,000, while the second highest gets $5,000.
For the house, a bidder will pay a fee of 60 cents per bid.
If this first auction proves to be a success, Talbot is considering expanding to other cities. Could penny auctions take the real estate world by storm? Voice your opinion.
The economy is finally back on the up-and-up. It is the time to buy. Mortgage rates and housing prices are low. The preliminary sentiment index for May climbed to 77.8%, its highest point since January 2008, according to Thompson Reuters/University of Michigan. From April to May’s figures represent a 1.4% increase, being the ninth consecutive month that the index has risen.
