In the high-end market, more properties are lingering. Some sellers are having to reduce their prices in the ultra-luxury market, in the hopes of getting a quicker sale. Otherwise, those hoping to hold out for a higher price are finding they’re waiting not months but years to make a sale.
For some, the waiting game is fine, though.
“In most cases, my sellers don’t have to sell,” says Ann MacQuoid, a real estate professional with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices. One of her clients in Park City, Utah, has a home listed for $10.9 million that has lingered on the market for a year and a half.
The pricier the home, the longer it usually takes to sell, according to data from realtor.com®. Homes in the highest bracket spent a median of 134 days on the market compared to 100 days for luxury homes overall. Meanwhile, the typical home spent only 53 days on the market. Realtor.com®’s research team examined the priciest 10 percent of 44,000 listings in the 20 largest U.S. metro areas in February.
About 9.5 percent of luxury homes spent more than a year on the market, according to realtor.com®’s research.
But real estate professionals warn that letting a listing go stale is rarely a good idea in the end. A buyer may start to believe something is wrong with the home and lowball the seller. Indeed, homes that spent an average of 774 days on the market to sell received 77 percent of the original list price, according to a report from Concierge Auctions, which analyzed the 10 most expensive sales in 27 high-end markets. On the other hand, homes that were on the market for less than 180 days sold for 93 percent of the initial list price.
John Walton and Stacy Demcher of Keller Williams Jersey Shore say they specialize in "expired listings" that have not sold. Walton says he will typically come in and adjust the price, take new photographs, and rewrite the copy to re-energize a listing and speed a sale. Some real estate pros also recommend taking the home off the market for a short period to try to reset the days-on-market number.
Source: “High-End Homes for Sale … for Years,” The Wall Street Journal (April 13, 2017) [Log-in required.]
