$1 Oakville house taken off market

A brand new Oakville house that was listed for $1 has been pulled off the market after six bids came in over the weekend, two of them in the $700,000 range.

That was about $200,000 less than the sellers had been hoping for after first listing their three-bedroom stucco home for $1.088 million in August and then urging their agent to drop the price last week.

The unusual $1 price tag stimulated a lot of interest, along with some accusations of false advertising. About 170 people came from miles away to tour the house Saturday and Sunday, but the bidding war never got as heated as hoped.

“Some people were wishing me luck and said they felt sorry for me,” says ReMax realtor Vasia Argiris who tried the unusual $1 strategy at the urging of her clients, Europeans who are more accustomed to the notion of house auctions.

The couple had been hoping to get at least $900,000 for home, which they built themselves.

“I tried,” says Argiris, “but the neighbourhood spoke and said that is just too much right now.”

The couple, who declined to speak about the weekend events, have been living in the basement of the house and will likely move upstairs until the time is right to put it back on the market.

That may be a while, judging from comments Argiris heard during the open houses and read in reaction to a Star story on the home last week.

Many of them came from neighbours, who were among the first to line up for the open houses, and were hugely critical of the home’s dark wood decor and original sale price, which one pointed out is about $500,000 higher than comparables in the neighbourhood.

Related: New lakeside Oakville home listing for $1