Lowballing in an unsettled market

By Bryan Tagas

Home sellers—and many real estate agents—hate to even hear the term lowball offer, let alone be the recipient of one. But there’s anecdotal evidence that as buyers have tried to gain an advantage from the dysfunctional nature of the residential real estate market, lowballing has been on the rise.

There are no statistics that confirm this trend, if it exists. That’s because there is no uniform definition of what a lowball offer is. One buyer’s idea of a realistic offer may be a seller’s idea of a lowball. Even among real estate agents, there’s no industry standard. Some maintain that an offer 25% below asking price is lowball, while other professionals set the bar at only 10% or less. More often, however, agents argue that it really depends on the property in question and whether the seller has properly priced it to the market. In a generally declining market such as this one, it’s easier for sellers to unreasonably overvalue their houses, while buyers might at the same time unreasonably assume they can negotiate a big discount from any asking price. Local agents tell me they see both kinds of mistakes made all the time. In a market with a low number of home sales the problem is exacerbated, since there are fewer comparables by which sellers, buyers, and their agents can measure value.

“When the bust first happened,” says one local Windermere agent, “many sellers didn’t recognize it and held onto their prices far too long. This led to a lot of lowballs.” He says he thinks most sellers are wiser now about setting their asking price, “but many buyers still seem to think lowballs make sense.” The reason for this, he says, is that buyers are in no hurry, making the assumptions that interest rates will remain low and that plenty of houses will continue to be available in the market.

Many sellers react to lowballs with anger, however. Some agents caution against “insulting” the seller with an offer that is too much below the asking price, since this may not result in a counteroffer by the seller. If the buyer’s idea is to start a negotiation, lowballing is more dangerous than if the buyer is simply testing to see if the seller is desperate or not. And desperation certainly can lead to a changed attitude on the part of a seller. One agent reports that she received a lowball offer on a house which the seller promptly rejected, refusing to “counter” because he was incensed. Several months later, however, that same seller accepted an even lower offer after having failed to sell his house. This is apparently not an unusual scenario. Many listing agents have personal horror stories of having a seller reject their recommendation to lower the asking price, then suffering the loss of the listing when the house remains unsold, and finally watching as another listing agent sells the house after drastically reducing the asking price. Some sellers simply have to learn by experience, which can sometimes be painful.

In fact, there’s evidence from the local market suggesting that waiting too long to accept “market realities” can be costly. Windermere/Madison Park agent Laura Halliday provided me with an analysis she did based on King County’s September sales for houses listed at $1 million or more. She found that houses that had no price changes before they were sold stayed on the market for an average of only 22 days—and the sold price of these houses was, on average, 93% of the original listing price. These were quick sales for well-priced houses, and this represented 44% of total sales for that market upper-segment. On the other hand, the houses that had one or more listing-price changes before sale (representing the other 56% of sales during the month) spent 214 days on the market, on average, and were sold at an average 78% of the original listing price. Houses that were on the market for 180 days or more sold at only 70% of their original list price.

Halliday notes that particularly in higher-end markets such as Madison Park, there are lots of houses to choose from. “When a seller prices a property too high all they are really doing,” she says, “is helping all the other correctly priced properties sell by making them look like a bargain.” Halliday believes that “the longer a property sits on the market the less the seller will net in the end.” She notes that someone with a home that has gone unsold for many months may become discouraged or “worn out” at some point, willing to accept a lowball offer. So lowballs definitely make sense in certain instances.

Val Ellis of Coldwell Banker agrees, stating that “time on the market” is a major factor for a potential buyer to consider. “A property that has lingered on for some time with numerous price drops will immediately become an invitation to an even lower (lowball) offer.”

Lowballs may make sense in certain other instances as well. One example is where the buyer who is making the lowball provides some advantage to the seller that might not otherwise be available. The ability to pay cash is one such advantage, and several agents report sellers being willing to accept reductions in the sale price of 10% or more simply because cash means an immediate sale and no risk of financing falling through, which might happen with a higher non-cash offer.

Another reason that a lowball offer might be effective is that it can be the opening round of a negotiation with the seller. Some agents advise sellers to make a counteroffer to a lowball even if they are angry. While the lowballer may simply be bottom fishing, he possibly could just be a serious negotiator making an initial gambit. The one way to find out is to keep talking. It’s possible, after all, that the two sides could meet somewhere in the middle. As Windermere’s Halliday notes, “you never know how high a buyer will go or how low a seller with go” until someone initiates a negotiation. Sometimes that begins with a lowball.

On a personal note, I have been involved in lowballs on both the buying and the selling sides of the equation. Many years ago my wife and I made an offer on a beach house which was “ridiculously" lowball--more than 20% below the sellers’ already-reduced asking price. It was the end of summer, the selling season was over on the island, and we expected our lowball to be the starting point for negotiation. To our astonishment and the listing agent’s dismay, the sellers accepted our offer rather than making the anticipated counteroffer.

Later as sellers, however, we learned a different lesson. After buying our house in Madison Park on a no-contingency offer, we still had to sell our house in View Ridge. We received a lowball offer for it, which we promptly rejected. But after several more months of not selling our house (suffering from double mortgage payments in the meantime), that lowball offer suddenly seemed more attractive and even realistic. Our agent asked the lowballer to resubmit his offer, which he did—and which we accepted. At closing, the buyer, a professor of finance in the UW’s Graduate School of Business (my alma mater), gently reminded me that the market sets the value. A good point, and one that buyers and sellers should always be mindful of.

[As noted, statistics are based on September 2010 sales in King County for the $1 million+ market. The lower chart shows that for sold houses in this market segment, only 3% of sellers had maintained their list price for 180 days or more. 54% of sellers, meanwhile, were successful in selling their houses after maintaining their original listing price for 30 days or fewer. Analysis supplied by Linda Halliday of Windermere Real Estate, using data from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service. Click to enlarge charts.]

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Early snow 2010

National news coverage of the snow in Seattle last week included commentary by several weather experts predicting that our early snowfall could be a sign that the region is in for a cold and snowly winter. We’re a bit skeptical of weather predictions, for good reason, but it’s certainly better to be prepared for another snowstorm than to assume we’re only permitted one per season.

It's certainly true that early snow planning by our Community Council occurred none too soon this year. We’re told that several people were “rescued” and delivered back to the neighborhood by the all-volunteer Emergency Snow Brigade, just established. We received no reports of any serious problems occurring in Madison Park during the period of freezing temperatures.

We appreciate the MPB readers who followed up on our suggestion to send us their snow pictures. These artsy shots are by Emily Heston, who blogs at splendidmarket.com:

The photos that lead off and end this posting were taken by Dorian G. Muncey.

Unsolicited Testimonial: Before ending this posting, the author (who does not own stock in the company and has not been compensated in any way for this endorsement) would like to recommend a product: Yaktrax Pro, a traction device for walking on snow and ice. I advise MPB readers to get this product (or one that’s similar) if you want to feel comfortable walking around the ‘hood in conditions such as we experienced last week. It is not expensive ($29.95 a pair at REI) and it really does make a world of difference. Last week I slipped and slid for 14 blocks while trudging on snow and ice get to the REI store downtown. I purchased a pair of Yaktrax Pros there, put them on, and walked back to my office with total confidence. Nary a slip nor a slide the whole way. Later in the week, while wearing Yaktrax, I actually (without thinking) ran with my dogs on the ice while they chased after a squirrel. Yaktrax slips over your shoes or boots and acts like “cable chains for your feet.” As noted, there are other products out there to choose from. Additionally, there are some customer reviews saying that Yaktrax does not have a long life. However, to pay a nominal amount not to fall on ice—even if you have to replace the product next year—seems like a bargain to me. My wife advised me to check them out, and I advise you to do the same. Many residents of hilly Queen Anne reportedly swear by them.

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October Real Estate Report

There’s no getting around the fact that it’s just not over. The decline in activity in the local real estate market, that is. The October numbers released by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service (MLS) for our area of town show sales, pending sales, and median sales values all down for the month, compared to October a year ago. And 2009 was hardly considered a good year in the local market.

For MLS’s Statistical Area 390 (which includes Madison Park, Capitol Hill, Madrona, and Montlake) inventory levels remained steady, but closed sales declined by 19% and pending sales were down by 24% year-over-year. This performance was better, however, than for Seattle as a whole, where closed sales declined by 32% and pendings were off by 26%.

Comparing monthly sales data for a market as small as Madison Park’s doesn’t make at lot of sense, however. Where total monthly sales range from only 5 to 11, a couple of extra sales (or a couple fewer) can seriously skew the data. The best way to analyze the numbers for our neighborhood is to look at longer-term trends. At the end of the year we will compare 2010 to 2009 and to previous years in order to put our market into better perspective. Just for the record, October’s numbers for Madison Park are almost level with those for the same month a year ago. Madison Park actually seems to be doing a bit better than the rest of town.

Here are the October market data for Madison Park (Broadmoor and Washington Park included), as reported by the MLS:

Houses

Sales: 3
Median Sale Price: $1,640,000
Average Sq. Ft.: 4,867
Average Price per Sq. Ft.: $572
Average Days on Market: 103
Average Discount from Original List Price: 14.7%

Condos

Sales: 2
Median Sale Price: $1,120,000
Average Sq. Ft.: 1,557
Average Price per Sq. Ft.: $646
Average Days on Market: 125
Average Discount from Original List Price: 4.7%

Additionally, however, the King County Assessor’s office reported two sales in Madison Park that were not apparently handled through the MLS. Both sales were under $1 million, and if included the above totals would reduce the median sale price for single-family homes to $1,150,000.

The October total of seven sales was slightly down from the eight home sales recorded in October 2009 and in line with the seven sales reported in Madison Park last month. The homes that sold did so relatively quickly, but the sellers of single-family homes took fairly deep discounts from their original list prices in order to get the sale: almost 15% on average. Condo sellers did much better, with an average discount of under 5%. Both condos that sold during the month were in the Washington Park Tower (1620 43rd Avenue). The most expensive home sold was the Washington Park waterfront estate of Joel Diamond, which we featured in our Summer Real Estate Report. Originally listed at $7,880,000, it sold for $6,700,000.

Here’s the current state of our real estate market, as reported by Redfin:

Houses

Listings: 62
Median List Price: $1,786,000
Median Sq. Ft.: 3,900
Median Price per Sq. Ft.: $458
Average Days on Market: 156
Proportion with Price Reductions: 34%

Condos & Townhouses

Listings: 31
Median List Price: $519,000
Median Sq. Ft.: 1,262
Median Price per Sq. Ft.: $411
Average Days on Market: 199
Proportion with Price Reductions: 45%

There are eight houses and five condos currently pending sale. Inventory levels, meanwhile, seem to be holding steady at around 100 listings. Many realtors advise prospective sellers to refrain from entering the market during the holiday season, since many potential buyers are focused on other things. This is not a universally held view, apparently. There were 12 new listings on the market during the last 30 days.

[Photo: This 2,100 sq. ft. one-story home, built in 1941 but recently remodeled, sits in the heart of Madison Park at 2060 McGilvra Boulevard. It has been on the market for one month and is a listing of Evan Wyman, Windermere Real Estate. Thanks, as always, to Wendy Skerritt of Windermere Real Estate for her help in compiling market data used in this report.]

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Madison Park Conservatory ready to make music

Open house on Saturday

By Bryan Tagas

Before we get to the blah blah blah portion of this posting, let’s go directly to the reveal: Madison Park Conservatory, the latest culinary incarnation to inhabit the onetime Sostanza space, is going to have its soft opening on Tuesday; and in advance of that, the neighborhood is invited to tour the refurbished digs and meet the new restaurant’s team at an open house to be held this Saturday, November 27, from 6 until 9 pm.

Now, on to the narrative:

Cormac Mahoney, maestro of Madison Park Conservatory, seems like a guy who’s ready for his close up. At 38, he’s done his time in the kitchens of other restaurateurs and has gained both assurance and bit of celebrity from his successful effort of last year: the trendy, well-regarded Tako Truk on Eastlake. That little venture, in which he was partnered by Bryan Jarr, was a “summer experiment” of intentional short duration. Operating out of window space in the 14 Carrot Café, Tako Truk was a quickly-popular, walk-up/carry-out purveyor of some adventuresome dinner fare—for example, the Coco Piggy Taco (coconut-flavored braised pork belly topped with pork rinds) and the surprising Octopus Taco (octopus boiled, sautéed, caramelized with lemon juice, and topped with a yogurt sauce and parsley)*. The critics raved and the place developed something of a cult-like following before shutting down.

Don’t expect another Tako Truk here in Madison Park, however. That’s not the plan.

But what is the plan? Since everyone wants to know, I’ve been doing my best to ferret that out, pestering Cormac for weeks to tell all. But though he was gracious and voluble, the guy was just not ready to divulge. Until now.

On Monday I got an email from him, and the subject line read: “built to spill.” So I eagerly bundled myself up and trudged through the evening’s snowstorm to meet Cormac at his new Madison Park Conservatory and get the scoop.

First of all, about the space. It’s been both lightened up and stripped down since the days of Sostanza. Outside, the building has been whitewashed, making it cleaner and brighter. Inside, the false ceiling in the main dining room has been removed, the fireplace eliminated, the wallboard pulled away to reveal the underlying cement, and the walls considerably lightened in color. The impact of all this is to make the room much airier and more open. Upstairs, the carpet has been pulled up to reveal a lovely wood floor, which has been refinished; the walls have been painted a light gray-blue in order to better tie the interior space to the view of water and sky; and in the bar area, decorative tin ceiling tiles have been installed to enhance the ambiance. The previously dark-stained bar—like the food counters downstairs—has been sanded down (by Cormac himself) to reveal the lighter wood beneath. Again, the impact of these changes is to create a livelier, happier space.

The Mediterranean atmosphere of the new restaurant, meanwhile, is heightened by the addition of hand-made Moroccan light fixtures. Large mirrors, which were framed in wood by Cormac’s father, will grace the main floor; but what other interior furnishings and decorations will fill the space are unknown to me, as they had yet to arrive. Hopefully, the snow will not prevent their delivery in time for Saturday’s event, so we can all see the full staging.

I had submitted a list of questions to Cormac before I actually got the chance to quiz him in person, not that he would have needed any advance prep in order to handle my interrogation. He certainly appears to be a guy who’s self-possessed, confident, and well able to think on his feet. He is also—by his own admission—profane, contrarian, and conceited. All of this, however, is overlaid with a well-developed, self-deprecating sense of humor. I was not fazed.

Here are the blogable results of my interview (some of which I excised in conformity with community standards and some of which Cormac himself decided were off the record, either before or after uttering the words). The questions and the responses have been paraphrased, except where there are direct quotes.

***
Bryan: Why the name, Madison Park Conservatory?

Cormac: Four things. First, “I like the way it sounds. It rolls nicely, and I like the acronym.” Also, there’s the greenhouse sense of conservatory. “We’re going to have our own garden and grow our own herbs and as much stuff as we can.” Additionally, “I like the whole idea of the music-school conservatory since there’s a correlation between music and cooking. At Sitka & Spruce [where Cormac was chef, 2005-09] I likened us to a house band. People came to us for the standards, but we wanted to do new things, too.” Finally, there is a certain “nudge/nudge, wink/wink” aspect to the name. “I wanted to play against the expected. Madison Park has the reputation of being staid and conservative,” and a conservatory is what people might expect to find here. “So it was kind of an inside joke, which maybe only I get: ‘Oh, let’s do lunch at the Conservatory.’ I was counseled against the name from some camps, but if I have gotten laughter or even a single giggle out of it, it’s what I wanted.”

Bryan: You’re being pretty coy about the menu. What kind of food are we talking about?

Cormac: As I always say, we’ll be serving “delicious plants and animals with a squeeze of lemon.” I really don’t want to define it further or put a label on it and then have it typecast. Once you do that you limit the food. “I’m going to cook what I want to cook.” My favorite dinner, for example, is roast chicken, potatoes and braised greens—the best vegetables ever. We’ll start minimally with the menu, the bar, and the space--and then let things take their course. I don’t want to overdesign it. It will grow organically. We will get feedback from our audience, and things may change. This is not to say, like Tom Douglas [famous Seattle restaurateur, in whose restaurants Cormac got his start] that the customer is always right. I reject that. I know it’s not true because as a customer I am sometimes wrong. So we’ll consider the input and then decide. I don't want this to be a place that intimidates people, but everyone will have to remember that “we’re a restaurant, not a catering company.” I want people to be comfortable here, but people will also have to be reasonable. This is going to be a mature, adult place. I want to have a healthy relationship with the neighborhood, including introducing it to new things that people may not already know and that might not otherwise be here. Mario Batali [well known New York chef and food impresario] has a sign up in his market, Eataly, which says ‘We are not always right, you are not always right, but together we’ll figure it out’ or something like that. I like the thought. “I don’t want Madison Park Conservatory to be a place that intimidates people. I want someone to walk away from a dining experience here saying ‘I learned something I didn’t already know.’”

Bryan: Can we talk about the Sunday dinners?

Cormac: We’ll be doing them every Sunday and if you want to dine you’ll have to make a physical reservation. In other words, come in, look us in the eye, and tell us you’re going to be here on Sunday and with how many people. We’ll post the Sunday Dinner menu on Thursday, so everyone can see what’s being served, the same meal for everybody. You’ll also get to look at the signup list, so you can see exactly who you’ll be dining with.

Bryan: Tako Truk—three months successful and then gone. How does your experience there inform what you’ll be doing in this new gig?

Cormac: “Tako Truk was an experiment, a street party. It was my frustrated artist scratching an itch. It was designed to be a summer thing, and it was fun for me to build something and then kill it. The food was good—I loved eating what we cooked. But I had to separate myself and get over myself for a second.” I learned to be self-critical. I’m sure I learned other things as well.

Bryan: What kind of atmosphere are you hoping to create at Madison Park Conservatory?

Cormac: “I want this to be a fun place, and I want this to be a place where big discussions happen. I have high hopes that the crazy Madison Park people will turn this into the kind of place where someone will suddenly break into song and that people will have great ideas eating here: ‘a full belly leads to an inspired mind’ or something like that. At minimum, I want people leaving here happy with themselves.”

***

Cormac is by no means alone in this new adventure, as he is quick to point out. Onetime Dahlia Lounge chef and celebrity Top Chef contestant Zoi Antonitsas, Cormac’s longtime friend from their days together in the kitchens of Tom Douglas, has returned from San Francisco to Seattle to work the “back of the house” with Cormac. “She’s my alternative life partner in the kitchen,” he says. A Seattle native of Greek descent, Zoi went on to become executive chef at Zazu in Santa Rosa after her 2008 stint on Season Four of Top Chef. She’s a believer in the simple and the rustic, and she’s on record as favoring the use of local, seasonal ingredients whenever possible. That’s certainly a fit with Cormac’s own thinking.

Maggie Savarino, meanwhile, will be managing the “front of the house” at MPC. She’s a one-time booze, wine, and food columnist for Seattle Weekly, whose first job (so her story goes, as told by Cormac) was as a bartender in a roadhouse blue-collar bar. Cormac met her through a mutual friend, did a dinner with her, instantly hit it off, and came back gushing about Maggie to his girlfriend, he reports. “She’s a fabulous, fun person.” says Cormac, adding “she’s a killer.” But I’ve met her and she seemed pretty sweet to me.

Last but not least, Bryan Jarr continues as a principal player with Cormac in this latest endeavor. “If the rest of us are Charlie’s Angels,” says Cormac, “then Bryan is our Bosley. He picks the herbs and chooses the insurance, among a lot of other things—he makes the ball round. He’s the only guy who can tell all three of us no.”

Madison Parkers will get the opportunity to meet the whole MPC crew on Saturday, at which time you can quiz each of them unmercifully. Cormac already knows what he’s in for, since he’s met at lot of neighbors already and has concluded that we’re pretty free with our advice and commentary. He lives in the neighborhood himself and describes Madison Park Conservatory as a 24/7 effort.

Judging by my interactions with him, it’s clear to me that Cormac Mahoney is a big thinker (just to prove my point, ask him sometime for his views on the fetishization of food in American culture). And it's also evident that he's ready to move to center stage. Though he’s perhaps a bit crazy, that’s not necessarily a bad thing for the proprietor of a top-end restaurant, even one located in Madison Park. He’s obviously got a lot of talent, a good team, and a thought-out game plan. I think we should set the bar high for Madison Park Conservatory and expect great things.

***

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[*I’m abashed to report that I was not among those lucky enough to have had the Tako Truk experience. I’ve therefore relied on the excellent reporting of Seattle Times critic Tan Vinh for these descriptions. Madison Park Conservatory is located at 1927 43rd Avenue E.]

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Snow, the morning after

First the good news. The bus is running and some cars are successfully navigating E. Madison St., which appears to be reasonably clear—at least for drivers with experience and the right kind of vehicle. On the other hand, the side streets are a bit treacherous in some places, especially where the thin covering of snow has been removed by traffic to reveal a dangerous layer of ice underneath. Inclines may be tricky.

Here's a good photo of the conditions at 7:00 am on E. Madison, which allows you to judge for yourself whether you want to take the bus or chance it in your car, assuming you need to leave the Park today:

Last evening’s mini-blizzard, with winds reportedly tracking at 20 mph or so, dumped about two inches of snow on the neighborhood. By 6:00, as most commuters had finally struggled home, the Village became pretty quiet, with few people or cars on the streets. Even Cactus! was relatively deserted (an almost unheard of event) when we wandered by, though the usual crowd of four or five was sitting around the fire at The Red Onion.

This morning, the Village is still relatively peaceful. Delivery trucks are making their rounds, and people are heading down for coffee. Be careful out there. The sidewalks are messy.

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Update at 9:30: Our drive downtown to work causes us to reinforce for MPB readers the fact that only drivers with experience and the right vehicle (four-wheel drive) should be on the roads. E. Madison St. is officially closed between Martin Luther King Way and 23rd Avenue E. Those wishing to travel downtown are advised to turn left on MLK rather than continuing up Madison. At Union Street you can turn right with the buses and continue on to downtown. Drive safely and watch out for the crazy kind of pedestrians who cross the icy streets against the light and in front of oncoming cars.

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Remembering the Big Snow of 2008

There was a brief flurry of snowflakes over the Park this afternoon, and a winter advisory just issued raises the possibility of real snow in the forecast for Monday. All of this provides a fine excuse for posting more of the great photos sent in by blog readers showing what it looked like when the Park was briefly severed from the rest of the City during the Great Snowstorm of 2008.

Although the mid-December storm that year only dumped about eight inches of snow on the town, continuing freezing weather kept that accumulation on the ground for many days. And, as those of us who lived through it well remember, the City failed miserably in its responsibility to quickly clear the streets, E. Madison included. Wasn’t it about four days before plowing and sanding finally occurred? That’s our recollection, at least.

At any rate, we learned to live with the situation. Whatever the inconveniences, however, the neighborhood managed to look absolutely fabulous in a picture-postcard, winter-wonderland kind of way.

Snow like that can be fun for kids and for those who don’t have to get to work somewhere. But it can also be treacherous for others. Hopefully we have learned some lessons from last Big One and will make sure to check on our neighbors if happens again this year. Remember, too, that the Community Council is heading up the neighborhood’s snow-emergency volunteer efforts. If you’re interested in helping out contact Gene Brandzel, the Council’s Lead Coordinator, at genebb@gmail.com or (206) 524-2115.

It's unlikely that this year we'll be experiencing anything like what happened in 2008, when the most snow Seattle had seen in over a decade fell in a seven-day period (it had also snowed earlier in the week, prior to the 8-inch dump). But if it does snow, a lot or a little, please send us your pictures!

[Photos, top to bottom: 1) Madison Park Beach, courtesy of Dorian C. Muncey Interiors, 2) 43rd Avenue at E. Howe, courtesy of Graham Fernald, 3) E. Madison Street at E. Galer, courtesy of Spencer Rascoff, 4) Washington Park, courtesy of Dorian C. Muncey Interiors, 5) the Madison Park pier, courtesy of Mikel Anne Morrison, and 6) Sophia Rascoff having the Madison Park playground all to herself, courtesy of her dad.]

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IndieFlix charts a new course

It’s not every day that a Madison Park business becomes the focus of national media attention, but that’s what happened this week when The New York Times ran a flattering story in its Sunday edition on IndieFlix, an independent film distribution company based right here in the Park. The article describes IndieFlix’s innovative product, Film Festival in a Box, as the centerpiece of an “unconventional” strategy to get short, independently produced films in front of new audiences. Those who attended IndieFlix’s Halloween screening of four scary films, which was held at the Madison Park Starbucks last month, are already in the know about IndieFlix’s creative game plan. For others, however, it might be a bit of a surprise to learn that there’s a company headquartered in the neighborhood with aspirations of changing the way business is done in a segment of the international entertainment industry.

When IndieFlix was formed in 2005, the initial idea of founders (and Madison Park residents) Scilla Andreen and Gian-Carlo Scandiuzzi, was to use the internet to help independent filmmakers find a wider audience by streaming their films online. And that was exactly what the Company did in its formative years—and still does. More recently, however, Andreen (whose first name, by the way, is pronounced SHE-la), hit upon the concept of marketing short independent films as part of an interactive game that would be played in social settings, with DVDs as the delivery vehicle rather than the Web. From there the idea developed into Film Festival in a Box (FFB), which debuted in September with its first boxed set of indie flicks on DVD. Each box, which retails for $14.95, contains a disc with four 8- to 20-minute films of a particular genre: for example, Love, Comedies, Fantastical and Powered by Girls. Eight different Film Festival in a Box games are currently available, but the plan is to ramp that up to at least 50.



The kickoff for FFB was held in New York’s Times Square (shown in the video above); and as the New York Times reported, the inaugural event provided a bit of an attention grabber when the IndieFlix films suddenly appeared on the JumboTron outside the W Hotel. Since its introduction, FFB has been picked up by online retailers such as Uncommon Goods and Drugstore.com, and is also available at many bricks-and-mortar locations nationally and at shops such as NuBe Green on Capitol Hill and the University Book Store locally.

The game is intended to work this way: you invite to some friends over for a social occasion and FFB becomes part of the event. Everyone watches the four films and then votes on the winner, following which you post the result online. The filmmakers are notified by FFB of all the votes they receive, and there are sometimes online opportunities for fans to interact with the creators of the films they’ve voted for. It’s all designed to get these films seen and get people talking about them. Tom Skerritt, the well-known actor and neighborhood celebrity, has played the game and is quoted as saying that “Film Festival in a Box is doing what Hollywood’s been trying to do for years—getting people to connect over films.”

It’s a start, but Andreen, who is the Company’s CEO, realizes there’s still a lot of work to do to push these interesting-but-often-overlooked films into the mainstream. FFB represents just one aspect of IndieFlix’s operations. The Company will continue to be an online independent film distributor, and there’s also the intriguing idea—still on the drawing boards—of creating an IndieFlix cable TV channel. With over 2,000 titles in the IndieFlix film library (features, shorts and documentaries, including foreign films), there’s no lack of product.

What’s needed, and what the Company's 13 employees have been tirelessly working on, is a business model that accomplishes the ultimate goals of the founders: provide a forum for filmmakers and their audiences to interact, while helping those filmmakers achieve commercial success. Both Andreen and co-founder Scandiuzzi (who, as executive director of ACT, is no longer involved in IndieFlix’s operations) had extensive background in filmmaking. Andreen spent many years in Hollywood, where she was an award-winning producer, director and Emmy-nominated costume designer, before returning to Seattle in 2005 to start a new career (she had grown up in Madison Park and attended Lakeside). As a champion of independent films, she was motivated to find a way to use her experience and connections in the industry and her marketing talents to develop a new-media distribution model that would work.

It’s way too early to declare success, as The New York Times noted, but the media buzz about IndieFlix has certainly been positive. In addition to the favorable NYT article, FFB was recently the subject of a Tweet by national film critic Roger Ebert, and the trendy lifestyles website Daily Grommet (“fresh finds, true stories”) also featured FFB earlier this month.

Andreen says her vision is to provide indie filmmakers with up to ten different revenue streams for their productions. “We launched [IndieFlix] with very little money,” she told PodTech in an early interview, “and it has sort of taken off, like a vine that grows and grows--and there’s no stopping it.” And at this point, after five years of effort, it looks like Madison Park’s own “next-gen” trend setter is well on its way.

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[IndieFlix is located at 1938 43rd Avenue E. Upper photo: Times Square NYY Film Festival in a Box event. Lower photo: Scilla Andreen, CEO of IndieFlix with her latest product. Photos and video courtesy of IndieFlix.]

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