A house for $1? Don't bet on it.

There are even a couple of houses on the market listed for $1 (one dollar!) with a clear intent of creating a bidding war. It’s not a new tactic. Some feel that by removing a particular list price, that you’re telling the market they’re free to set their own price for the house.

Nice in theory.

But Realtors have access to the selling prices of homes on that street and are going to know what’s fair value and what’s not going to fly. And they’ll advise their clients accordingly. 

(NOTE: A “client” is one who signed a Buyer Representation Agreement with the agent. That agreement requires the agent to work in the *buyer’s* best interests and provide them with sound advice and historical sales etc. If you don’t sign a Buyer’s Rep agreement, the agent is not obligated to provide that info on your behalf!)

The Sellers and their agent are going to find themselves sifting through a lot of offers that aren’t even in the ballpark for what they’re prepared to sell it for. 

So why bother with all of that “noise”? 

Are they looking to find that one person willing to hugely over pay? They could have achieved the same thing by listing it for $100,000 less than expected and then eliminate the myriad of lowball offers at the same time. All that this $1 list price is going to achieve is kill a lot of trees through wasted paperwork by a lot of agents with buyers believing they’re going to score some ridiculously sweet deal.

www.Alexa.com reports that www.Realtor.ca is the 49th most visited site in Canada. By comparison, the Star's website is #50.

Lots and lots of people are going to notice that house at that price.

And since the sellers are not obligated to accept just *any* price for the house, they're likely going to get market rate for the place or even slightly above.

But if I'm selling your house, that $1 listing tactic is not something I would do.

Why would you and I want to sift through dozens of ridiculous offers just to weed through them to find the few that are even in the ballpark?

That said, it might be something to consider if the property was a really unique, one-of-a-kind property and difficult to find comparisons with it. But for the average property in the GTA, nope.

To some it may seem "crafty". But they just haven't really thought it through.