Reduced Prices

I've never understood many of the complaints here that because someone sets an asking price and then lowers it, they are viewed as bad people or unrealistic sellers or otherwise worthy of scorn.

$1MM listing drops 10%, woooo, big deal.

What do you guys pay list price at the car dealer?
Boycott Macy's sales?
Insist that the Sleepy's charge you the list price?

Welcome to the real world.

VVerain- It's no secret about my feelings as to NYC RE. and the stock markets, however I totally agree with you when it comes to asking prices. I'm just as guilty as the next guy. I often make posts to point out how ridiculously priced a particular unit is listed. I guess it makes conversation and seeks the rebuttal of others in their opinion.

Despite my feelings on many economic issues the one thing I truly believe is, everything is worth what someone is willing to pay for it. It's just that simple. For example is A-Rod worth $25M/year? I say say no way, however the truth is, someone is willing to pay that price. I have no choice but to conclude obvious, yes he is worth it because he got it. The rest is just a morality and opinion debate. Do I think the asking $100M for a condo at 15 CPW is nuts, yes. My guess is someone will think otherwise.

There's nothing wrong with setting an optimistic asking price, but the numbers on too many listings, especially in this climate, clearly have nothing to do with reality.

What some of these sellers (and their overly eager agents) don't seem to understand is that by letting a property sit for months on end with incremental price drops every so often, they are succeeding only in hampering any potential momentum or interest that might have occurred with a more reasonable ask out the gate.

There's nothing more uninteresting than a stagnating listing, continuing to moulder away for nearly a year even after an almost embarrassing number of reductions (to wit: 140 RSD, 16K--a true dump that's STILL overpriced). Sorry, but that's just bad judgment on the part of the seller, and especially the listing agent, who should know better.

Furthermore, with multiple price drops over a lengthy period of time, buyers start to wonder what is wrong with the property that the seller is hiding that nobody wanted to buy it (when it may have just been overpriced to begin with)....

Or even worse - with NO price drops (incremental or otherwise) over time. Many listing agents still subscribe to the theory that an overpriced listing is better than no listing. This may have worked in 2005 / 2006, when the market would often "catch up" to overpriced listings, but this approach is certainly a loser today.

Reputable / professional / experienced agents will avoid clunker listings in this market, if only for the large expenditure of time they'll require - with a low likelihood of an eventual payoff. BTW, it's the seller - not the broker - that ultimately prices the apartment, but the brokers don't have to play along.

those prices had to have dropped more than 10% if they were over priced by 10% back then.