June 17, 2008
Price Slashing Pays on Sweetzer
Back in January, I blogged about a massive price reduction on a single-family home at 359 N. Sweetzer Ave., Los Angeles (pictured above), a three-bedroom, two-bath, 1, 746-foot home in a highly desirable area of L.A. But the seller was overly optimistic when the house first hit the market: It was listed for a whopping $1,499,000.
In January, the seller wised up and slashed the price $200,000, to $1,299,000. A potential buyer smelled blood and swooped in with a lowball offer, and guess what: Our seller took it. The house closed in March for $1,050,000.
Clearly the house was overpriced to begin with, but that’s more than 40 percent lower than the original asking price. Did our buyer get a deal? Let’s look at comps:
Sold:
353 N. Sweetzer Ave.
Sold for $950,000 on Jan. 18
3BR/2B/1,784 square feet
Notes: This house was part of the same blog post. A sale was recorded in November for the telltale oddball price of a lender purchase: $951,446. However, someone with inside knowledge must have immediately put in an offer directly to the lender, because less than two months later, another sale was recorded, this time for $950,000. This is $100,000 less than its aforementioned neighbor down the street, for nearly identical square footage.
454 N. Flores St.
Sold for $910,000 on Feb. 27
2BR/1B/1,344 square feet
Notes: This is the comp agents will point to when trying to sell overpriced listings. This may be a lovely property, but why would anyone pay nearly a million dollars for a two-bedroom, one-bath house?
520 N. Flores St.
Sold for $890,000 on Feb. 22
2BR/2B/1,431 square feet
Notes: At least this one has two bathrooms.
For sale:
336 N. Flores St.
$1,185,000
2BR/2B/1,539 square feet
Days on market: 94
Notes: This listing touts a “$115,000 REDUCTION!!!” Looks like at least one more of similar size is in order.
321 N. Sweetzer Ave.
$1,049,000
3BR/2B/1,916 square feet
Days on market: 129
Notes: This fixer-upper came on the market in February at $1,165,000 and has been reduced three times.
l.a.guy said:
These are the kinds of listings that people will site as evidence of a massive depreciation in home values, but I would argue the seller was delusional and the house was never remotely worth that to begin with. Of course that doesn’t mean some idiot wouldn’t have come along 18 months ago and bought it for 1.5M, but in this case the price was just way off to begin with. (IMHO)
Nice post though… these are the kinds stories that add value to Redfin and give some local flavor as to what is happening on the ground.
June 18, 2008 3:50 AM
Cindy Allen said:
Yes, definitely delusional, LA guy. But someone DID buy it for over a mill — as agents say, it only takes one!
June 18, 2008 8:07 AM
In This Market, The Price Must Be Right | Redfin Los Angeles Sweet Digs said:
[…] Dramatic price cuts recently helped this house at 359 N. Sweetzer Ave. sell. The owner purchased in 2000, so, unless the house was used as an ATM, there was equity there — and thus price flexibility. […]
June 21, 2008 2:10 PM