One Man's Trash...

Back in January, I visited an open house for a home that was listed for $1.250M. On paper, the home seemed to be priced a little high - however, I figured that the seller must have spent a bucket of cash updating the home. After all, the description said "Completeley Updated Throughout".

Upon visiting the home, I could see that the home description took many liberties, most notably the comment about being completeley updated. While the kitchen was updated with low to mid-range level appliances, the bathrooms and bedrooms were not updated at all - at least not in the past 10 years. On top of that, the living had 4 bathroom bar lights - yes, you read that right, 4 bathroom bar lights in the living room. I really don't know what the seller was thinking. The most ridiculous thing was the fact that the asking prices was $1.250M.

Needless to say that in a changing market place, this home sat on the market. As the home continued to languish, the seller began reducing the price. They dropped the price to $1.150M. Still, no takers. They changed the listing agent. Still no takers. They reduced the price to $999,000. Still, no takers. They decided to sell the home themselves, still no takers. Finally, earlier this month (July), the home went pending. The listing price was somewhere in the range of $950K to $999K. After 6 months on the market and 3 different listing agents, I figured that someone had made an offer in the low to mid $900K range. After all, 6 months on the market and multiple large price reductions should indicate that the buyer would have some leverage.

Once the transaction closed earlier this week, I checked the sold price. To my complete disbelief, the home's closing price was $1.205M. Unbelievable. To me, the house was worth about $900K given all of the improvements and updating that needed to be done. I guess what they say is really true - some poor sucker thought the house was worth $1.2M and decided to offer way over the asking price, despite the facts in front of them. I guess this buyer found their treasure - more power to them.