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Auction.io has acquired Doorsey, a listing marketing resource that facilitates live, competitive homebuying, according to reports.
The financial aspects of the acquisition, reported first by Geekwire on May 18, were not shared publicly.
Auction.io is an auction website and software company founded in 2021 by Raj Rajaram. Its intent is to facilitate auctions through white-labeled marketplace software. The site shows a number of live auctions for general consumer merchandise, from vacuums to Mercedes G-Wagons.
Doorsey’s model uses a publicly available bidding website on which buyers can see competitive offers and submit formal “bids” above the last. People can ask questions of the seller and ignite discussions about specific concerns about the home. All comments are available for all to read.
Doorsey founder Jordan Allen acknowledged in an interview with Inman “a couple of flaws” in the initial model leading to a lukewarm reception by agents despite its ability to earn more money for sellers.
“We came out trying to be a marketplace, and maybe agents saw us as the next Zillow,” Allen said. “We transitioned more to a like, a Shopify for real estate, where it was the same model and tools, but we embedded ourselves within agents websites.”
The auction platform is simply another way to sell a home, according to Allen, who will join Auction.io’s board.
Deal talks started around January, according to Allen.
Doorsey, reviewed by Inman in 2022, encourages its photographers, which it hires, to open cabinets and capture closet interiors and room specifics. The same goes for the exterior. Every primary photo of main rooms and features have narratives attached to them, each offering more on their own than entire MLS descriptions allow.
Allen, told Inman during a demo of the product in 2022 that he wanted to do for the housing market what BringATrailer.com did for the collectible car market.
Doorsey launched during the latter days of the pandemic market, when buyers were frothing for homes. While things have cooled and fewer buyers are active, those that are have little to choose from, suggesting Doorsey’s model may still have legs.
Existing-home sales declined on a monthly and annual basis in April, according to the National Association of Realtors’ latest market report published on Thursday.
Sales for the segment slid 3.4 percent month over month from a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.44 million in March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.28 million in April. On an annual basis, sales dropped 23.2 percent from 5.57 million in April 2022.
Auction platforms for homes are often good places to find investors, but they’r not as cash rich as they once were, according to an Inman report.
Of the homes that sold in December, 2022, investors nabbed 8.2 percent, according to a Realtor.com analysis of deed records. That’s up 0.4 percentage points from the same time the year before, and down from a 8.9 percent peak in investor market share in February of 2022.
Allen said he feels fortunate to have sold the company, mainly because of the market conditions, and that his work is in the hands of someone more experienced in the auction game.
“They do a lot of liquidations, collectibles, and really know a lot about auction theory,” Allen said. “They wanted to add a real estate component to their auctions.”
