This is that time of year – "real estate Spring," we like to call it – when the promise of something new energizes the Manhattan Beach real estate market.
But what if your listing is not at all new?
Suddenly, all those whippersnappers coming to market are something between an annoyance – like a cloud of…
This is that time of year – "real estate Spring," we like to call it – when the promise of something new energizes the Manhattan Beach real estate market.
But what if your listing is not at all new?
Suddenly, all those whippersnappers coming to market are something between an annoyance – like a cloud of flies – and an existential threat. What are you going to do?
Several listings that have hung around a while are making price cuts, and taking, achem, other measures, to grab buyers' attention. Here's a rundown of listings with 90+ DOM that have just cut prices.
333 21st Place (3br/4ba, 1850 sqft.) first came to market at the tail end of Summer last year, asking $2.499M to begin, and running August-October.
It's a newer unit with some views down the alley. Plenty finely appointed, perhaps a bit snug. It's like many, many townhomes all around Manhattan Beach, although most of the (flourishing) options in the townhome market today are different.
The listing just cut to $2.199M, a 12% drop from its overly ambitious start, and a measure of motivation.
In case you were wondering: Yes, you can overprice in this market. And yes, it can have consequences. Still, this one will sell.
3113 Walnut (5br/5ba, 3325 sqft.) is new construction we have called "taut" and "splendid," even as it's hard to nail down what to call the style. It's modern, right?
Debuting in late October (because it was ready, not because anyone times a listing like that), it began at $3.280M and had the Tree Section field pretty much to itself for a while.
The listing took a proper break from mid-December to mid-January – "proper," here, meaning "put the existing listing on 'hold' instead of canceling and re-listing just to reset the DOM clock" – and still was mostly the only $3M-ish new construction in the Trees seeking buyers when it came back early this year.
It's now down to $3.180M and near 100 DOM at a time when a raft of new offerings at the same – or lower – price points have emerged all around the Tree Section.
2215 Bayview (4br/4ba, 2625 sqft.) is an example you could see developing from the moment it hit the market.
This is a delightful, spacious, Spanish-style townhome with good views, a newer unit to boot (2007 build).
The sellers obviously overplayed their hand in an oddly timed early-December listing, asking $3.699M. With no action, they've now finally cut to $3.499M, which should be nearer the market price. But are buyers watching? (Disclosure: Dave has clients who have toured the property.)
As we've noted before, in pricing this one, the sellers must have considered a similarly located, similarly sized modern TH at 2305 Bayview (3br/4ba, 2570 sqft.), which blew socks off when it sold at $3.399M in January 2015. Oh, so long ago.
201 Larsson (4br/4ba, 4000 sqft.) is an unusual house with an uncanny habit of coming to market and never selling.
It has been on and off the market in parts of 7 years (2004, '09, '10, '11, '12, '15 and now '16). It just requires a buyer who hasn't yet come.
It's down $150K now from the November 2015 start price, now at $3.249M.
The nearby neighbor, 217 Larsson (4br/4ba, 3700 sqft.) is a modern-style home that's comparatively easy to groove on. Asking $3.250M, that home went into escrow in late January and could be wrapping up a sale very soon.
509 5th (3br/3ba, 2500 sqft.) is a charming walkstreet home in the South End that doesn't really need a spell of work.
But its $3.699M start made it tough out of the blocks, and the home's not as large as perhaps most buyers in this price range would like to see.
They finally cut $200K last week to $3.499M, as they nearly finish the first 5 months on market.
1000 The Strand is the oversized Strand lot with the super-sized price near the pier. (See "$29M? Can We Talk?")
As they begin Month 10 of the Saga of Selling this Strand lot, this listing has cut the most of any Manhattan Beach property: $2.4 million.
Now "just" $26.500M. And yet...
1304 Lynngrove (5br/6ba, 3750 sqft.) has been on the market in some form since mid-February 2015. Last year.
But it accrued 250 DOM while the new construction was still not wrapped up yet – it was all sketches and promise for sale, not a home you could go see.
The visitable home officially came to market in November 2015. The old asking price of $3.199M was gone, replaced by $2.999M.
This week, $100K more has come off the top (now $2.899M), while the dusty old MLS number was ditched in favor of a complete re-listing. So you'll see it on the market and in all of your various alerts as a "new" listing, even when your instincts and your memory – and the Internet – tell you that it just ain't so.
The headline, though, may be: They're trying.
The whole Spring is still ahead for each of these.
Please see our blog disclaimer.
Listings presented above are supplied via the MLS and are brokered by a variety of agents and firms, not Dave Fratello or Edge Real Estate Agency, unless so stated with the listing. Images and links to properties above lead to a full MLS display of information, including home details, lot size, all photos, and listing broker and agent information and contact information.