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Desperate Times Call For Reverse Condo Auction

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Jun 4, 2008 12:09 am US/Eastern

Desperate Times Call For Reverse Condo Auction

Read More About This Story In David's Blog

MIAMI (CBS4) ― From auctions to 10-day-sales, lately we have seen a lot of new tactics to sell real estate. Agents are now introducing the reverse auction, where the price drops every second.

As you read this story, Zack Preble is losing money on his pre-construction condo in Downtown Miami.

"I would be one of these small terraces here," said Zack Preble, of Condofiasco.com.

Preble is supposed to close on Friday—a day he's been dreading for months. When the market tanked, he realized he paid too much. So he tried selling virtual shares of his condo; $35 got you a stake in any future profits. Unfortunate for him, he came up 9,927 shares short.

"Pretty rotten," said Preble. "Pretty rotten that I'm going to walk away from some money unless something happens in the next couple [of] days."

Now he's hoping more 'out of the box' thinking will save his $70,000 deposit he stands to lose Friday.

"The market is dropping, so the price should drop and at the rate that things are dropping it's, ah it's only fitting that you see it dropping in front of your eyes when you go the web site."

With a reverse auction, that updates every second, you can see the price of Preble's one bedroom apartment in the plaza dropping.

"The price could drop all the way down to two hundred and eight something thousand dollars," he said. "Which is actually a pretty good price."

Preble calls it his fighting chance at the inevitable.

"If no one buys, there is pretty good chance I'll just walk away."

Except when Preble walks away from $70,000 dollars, we will have watched his financial demise in real time.

"That's right, but you know what? At the end of this, my blog will be worth more than my condo."

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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