This morning in Naples is the most beautiful day in weeks, with temperatures in the high 70’s and virtually no humidity. It’s a glorious ending to a week of rainy days and gloomy news from the housing markets.
Personally, I’ve had good news with regard to my own current listing. It’s not at The Dunes, but is in a comparable building to the three buildings in of Island Cove. My listing was first active last December, and though there were many showings, only a couple of verbal discussions until this week. You see, I finally lowered the price to the point I realized today’s buyer would find it attractive.
Full disclosure would require that I admit that my partners and I did in fact settle for significantly less than we’d hoped when listing originally. In fact, we will be selling for approximately 40% less than our purchase price at the top of the market in early 2006. Painful, yes! Realistic in today’s market, unfortunately, yes. That brings our sale price back to levels being seen in 2003 before the “bubble” began to develop.
In the end, we could either continue to carry the costs involved, or sell it at today’s market value. We’ve all regularly made those decisions with our stock portfolios. Why does it seem so much harder when we consider our real estate investments? I think it’s because we can actually see the investment, , and as in our case, enjoy it. But at the end of the day, it was still an investment, . We gambled and lost.
So, if you’re trying to sell in today’s market, you need to look back and see what the values were in the early years of this decade. That’s likely to be the price at which you can find a buyer at this time. If it’s your home, or your vacation home, you should find a way to hold on until this passes. If it was a pure investment risk, it may be time for you to consider pricing realistically to find a buyer. Call us if you need help determining exactly where a buyer will be willing to make an offer.
Labels: condos, current market, dunes, high end, life style, lifestyle, Love the Dunes, naples, real estate, southwest florida
