This is the single-level home that sold in February, 2022 for a million over the $2.5 million list price (set deliberately low by the seller). The buyer passed away, unfortunately, and their heirs listed it a year later for $2,900,000. The listing agent (who lives in the ER) also set his list price attractively low and got it bid up to $3,200,000 this time.
While the casual observer would deduce that prices have come down 9% in the last year, you have to wonder if the buyer had to pay as much as $3,500,000 to win it last year – or if that was a random plunge.
This home was listed in August for $2,895,000 with a different Compass agent who had lowered the price down to $2,500,000 by October 6th but then cancelled.
The new listing agent started on December 1st at $2,749,000, and sixteen days later found the buyer. It sold for $2,715,000:
This home listed for $3,595,000 but didn’t have any takers over the first five weeks. They ‘refreshed’ the listing (let it expire and then relisted as a new listing), with a lower price of $3,445,000 – a discount of 4%.
They found the buyer a week later who paid $3,400,000 cash. I’m not sure if it was the lower list price that caused it, or the refresh?
This Encinitas Ranch home was listed for $3,499,000 on March 29th – which was the week rates started going up – and had no price reductions. After 112 days on the open market, they found a buyer who closed in less than 30 days (Sept.12th) for $3,390,000 cash, which was 3% under the list price.
The buyer’s dilemma: If you are like most buyers, you are turned off by at least 90% of the inventory.
There are probably only one or two listings per month that are nice enough to capture your interest – can you stay passionate in your pursuit? Will you review every auto-notification of a new listing with the likelihood of 85% to 95% of them have no chance of being a possibility for you?
For some, and perhaps for many, it will be easier to just pay within 3% of the list price for a stale old listing. Buy the house and get settled. Pour another 5% to 10% into it during the first year to make it your own.
