How We Sold a Million-Dollar Commercial Property in Less Than a Month- Starting the Bidding at $1

How We Sold a Million-Dollar Commercial Property in Less Than a Month- Starting the Bidding at $1

What happens when you take a commercial property worth around $1 million, put it up for auction, and start the bidding at one dollar?

It sounds a little terrifying.

But that’s exactly what we did with a 10,000 sq ft daycare building in Louisville, Kentucky. By the end, the seller made a profit, a new daycare franchise found its next location, and we walked away with an even better understanding of what it takes to successfully market and sell a million-dollar commercial property at auction.

Here’s how we did it.

Step 1: Sell It Absolute

This property was offered at absolute auction, meaning there were no minimums and no reserves. The highest bidder was going to own the property, regardless of price.

For a seller, that can sound scary. What if my million-dollar building only brings $500,000?

But the very thing that makes an absolute auction intimidating is also what makes it so powerful: buyers know the property is actually going to sell.

Commercial buyers are busy people. Before bidding, they may spend hours reviewing documents, researching zoning and potential uses, evaluating financing, estimating renovation costs and discussing the property with business partners or advisors. They are much more likely to make that investment when they know there will be a winner at the end.

Imagine instead that our seller had placed a hidden $950,000 reserve on the property. A prospective buyer doesn't know what that number is. They may assume the seller isn't serious, the reserve is unrealistic, or that they're going to spend hours researching a property only to discover the seller won't accept the market's price. An absolute auction removes that uncertainty.

There is an element of trust involved. The seller is trusting that the market will recognize the property's value. In return, buyers become invested in the process, and once they're invested, competition can push the price well beyond the baseline everyone had in mind. That's exactly what we want an auction to do.

Step 2: Market It Like Crazy

An auction creates urgency, but urgency only works if the right people know about the property. We had roughly two to three weeks to catch them.

Our marketing budget was approximately $9,000, and we focused on identifying the people and businesses that could actually use the space. The property was already operating as a daycare, so childcare providers were an obvious audience. But we didn't stop there. We considered other potential uses for the building, including medical offices, adult day programs, nursing or care facilities, and pet boarding businesses.

We personally contacted daycare franchises operating in the area and mailed approximately 300 brochures to daycare operators of a certain size. We also invested several thousand dollars into targeted Facebook advertising designed to reach people likely to be executives, business owners or investors in the industries we identified.

Some of our best time and money went into targeted outreach and social media advertising. Our worst-performing investment? A business journal newsletter. It was one of the most expensive pieces of the campaign...and generated about 30 clicks.

That's part of marketing, too. Every auction teaches us something about where buyers are actually coming from, allowing us to make the next campaign even smarter.

Step 3: Be Available- A Lot

The marketing worked, and then the phone started ringing.

One thing that's easy to underestimate when selling commercial real estate at auction is how many potential buyers have never participated in a real estate auction before. That means you're not just answering questions about the property, but also explaining the auction process itself.

How does bidding work? What is a buyer's premium? Can I finance the property? What happens when the auction ends? What does absolute mean? When do we close? Those conversations matter. A buyer who doesn't understand the process isn't necessarily an uninterested buyer. Sometimes they just need someone willing to answer the phone, explain what's happening and make them comfortable enough to take the next step.

If you're considering selling your own commercial property at auction, or you're a real estate professional partnering with an auction company, responsiveness matters enormously. Make sure the auctioneer is accessible and, just as importantly, has a reliable team answering the office phones and responding to inquiries throughout the campaign.

So, What Did It Sell For?

Just under $1.2 million.

From launch to sale, the entire process took less than a month.

There wasn't one magic advertisement or one secret trick that made this auction successful. It was the combination of an absolute auction that gave buyers confidence, aggressive targeted marketing that reached the right audience, and a responsive team that helped interested buyers navigate the process.

And yes—we started the bidding at $1. Sometimes that's exactly where a million-dollar sale begins.