Listing Price Drops of $10k on $1M Homes

[Anonymous]

Am I out of line for feeling that sellers are ridiculous when they drop the price on their $900k to $1M by some pretty insignificant amount, like $10k. I mean, that works out to a 1% drop...

I know we are in a hot market, but if your house is not selling, dropping it 1% probably won't solve the problem... and it just generates noise and it actually turns me off further because if you were so pained to drop that 1%, clearly *real* negotiations will be like blood from a stone...

[Anonymous]

I think many sellers are rediculous for a variety of reasons.

[Anonymous]

A serious seller would in that price range should drop $25K not $10K. Their agent is not doing a good job of counseling them. The house will sit, and eventually they'll end up chasing the market down. The listing will get stale, they will restart the DOM at a new price - the price they should have listed it for to begin with. By that time, they will be out of the summer buying season, and they will take the first offer that comes along!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A serious seller would in that price range should drop $25K not $10K. Their agent is not doing a good job of counseling them. The house will sit, and eventually they'll end up chasing the market down. The listing will get stale, they will restart the DOM at a new price - the price they should have listed it for to begin with. By that time, they will be out of the summer buying season, and they will take the first offer that comes along!

There you go. When we got to this upper market 1 million plus-- I finally realized most of these sellers are different. Many do not have to sell and are not urgent to sell. Many are just fishing. We have had a few go up in our neighborhood where the people have said if we get X we will move and retire in Y--but there is no real urgency.

[Anonymous]

That's a joke of a price drop. If they aren't getting offers, then it's a lot more overpriced than that.
Some sellers (most) think that their houses are worth more than they really are.

[Anonymous]

True. If you can't afford $1M, you likely cannot afford $990k either.

[Anonymous]

I don't disagree, but can see why a seller would do this if they wanted to get below - say - $1M as perhaps they feel that getting into the $900s is enough to attract the attention of more buyers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A serious seller would in that price range should drop $25K not $10K. Their agent is not doing a good job of counseling them. The house will sit, and eventually they'll end up chasing the market down. The listing will get stale, they will restart the DOM at a new price - the price they should have listed it for to begin with. By that time, they will be out of the summer buying season, and they will take the first offer that comes along!

There you go. When we got to this upper market 1 million plus-- I finally realized most of these sellers are different. Many do not have to sell and are not urgent to sell. Many are just fishing. We have had a few go up in our neighborhood where the people have said if we get X we will move and retire in Y--but there is no real urgency.

Exactly. A $25,000 price drop probably represents less than a year of mortgage payments to someone who's been in the home for a long time. They can afford to wait it out.

[Anonymous]

Personally I think $10K is rather silly, but you often will see a $1K price drop at that range. I always figure that is done to pull the listing to the top of the list of reduced price homes, not because they are actually reducing the price.

[Anonymous]

Dropping price 2% at a time, that will get them running to the door...
http://www.redfin.com/VA/Falls-Church/913-Lincoln-Ave-22046/home/12033602?utm_campaign=instant_listings_update&utm_medium=email&utm_source=myredfin

Also, in No Arlington and FCC, prices have never really 'deflated' from the 2000s housing bom. Some places do seem to have dropped back, but to what reference year? This house sold for $850k in 2004, yet is listing for 200k more than that; is that in trend with other sales? There is such low inventory, and at this price point even fewer sales its hard to build comps.