Former NFL All-Pro Matt Birk’s Greenwich home heads to auction

In what has been billed as an increasingly popular alternative to more traditional listings, former National Football League center Matt Birk’s Greenwich home is hitting the auction block, Patch reported. Birk bought the home at 26 Cobb Island Drive for $3.85 million in 2014, a year after the former All-Pro retired from the NFL, so he could get sacked for a loss when the property near Cos Cob Harbor heads to auction on June 1 with bids starting at $3.25 million. The 8,400-square-foot home, which was recently redone, has a swimming pool and a balcony. The news comes amid reports that luxury homeowners in Greenwich are increasingly taking price cuts on their homes — a notion that local residential brokers have pushed back upon — by turning to auctions or renting out their homes. The Greenwich Time reported that Avon-based Professional Real Estate Auctions will handle the auction of Birk’s home. Auctions can “accelerate the sale of your property by generating additional consumer interest and activity,” PREA managing partner Michael Pelzar told the outlet. Birk, a Harvard graduate who lost 75 pounds after leaving pro football behind, previously listed his Greenwich home for its $3.85 million purchase price in 2016. [Patch]