This is a timeline of a condo sale that is typical of many current listings. The seller hit the market last summer at a price that seemed high but within the ballpark considering similar sales months earlier. The unit was first listed last July which was about the time we were starting to see some areas of softening in our condo market. Asking price started at $575,000 but was dropped to $549,000 just three weeks in and cancelled a week later. Three months later, in November, it came back on the MLS asking $545,000 and was dropped to $535,000 two weeks later. On New Years Day it was dropped to $519,900 and again to $499,900 three weeks later. One month later another small drop to $495,000 and two weeks later to $485,000 and $475,000 two weeks after that before being cancelled in early May. It came back on the market in mid-June at $474,900 and dropped a week later to $449,900 where it sat until mid-August when it finally got a contract after being on and off the market for slightly over a year. We won't know the actual contract price until it closes. Sticking with a higher-than-market-value asking price "just in case" despite descending prices of comparable sales is a costly strategy as this seller found out.
A timeline of multiple price drops is not uncommon. Almost half (47%) of all condo listings in Cocoa Beach and Cape Canaveral have been for sale for over 100 days and, of those 126 listings, 90 have had price changes. Much of the inventory is overpriced and will need price adjustments if the sellers hope to attract a buyer. Condo buyers, who may find a promising looking listing after wading through a predominantly overpriced inventory, are then faced with rising condo fees, higher down payment requirements and increasingly expensive insurance, the very things fueling the declining prices.
What could this seller have gotten for this unit last year had their price been better earlier? It's anyone's guess but the fact that the condo market was changing and softening was obvious to anyone who was paying attention. Paying close attention to closing prices and asking prices of other units that were attracting buyers might have hinted to this seller that their price was the problem but they either didn't bother to know or denied what they saw. Buyers and sellers alike will benefit from knowing the recently sold prices of comparable properties. Selling prices are retreating and asking prices for the majority of active listings aren't in line with selling prices. What any unit sold for in 2023 is probably not a good indication of what that unit might sell for now. Homework pays off, people.
PSA for current condo sellers. Please check your MLS listings to make sure your condo name is correctly entered into the MLS. There are eleven current condo listings with incorrect or missing condo names. This means that all prospective buyers who have saved searches with your condo name included have not gotten an alert that your unit is for sale. I was reminded of this last week when I was checking my saved search of all short-term rental oceanfront condos in our market. I was aware of a new listing but it wasn't included in my results. I checked and, sure enough, the condo name, in this case, was misspelled excluding it from search results. Several of the other offenders appear to be agents unfamiliar with our MLS who don't know how to plug in the correct condo name. This ain't rocket dentistry level complexity but then again the real estate licensing process does not screen for ability or aptitude for learning and sometimes rewards incompetence with sheer blind luck. Don't be a victim of your agent's mistakes and oversight and proofread your listing for errors.
How about accuracy of your condo fees? There are a few condo listings with grossly misstated condo fees which will ultimately threaten an executed contract when the truth becomes known before closing. Don't expect your buyer to be cool with $1100 a month condo fees when he's expecting $650 as advertised in the MLS at the time he wrote his offer.
"However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results." _Winston Churchill
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