Actual Sales for St George (part two)

I did a little research, of these 92 homes that were sold, 37 of them had prior recent history. This means that the DOM (days on market) is not entirely accurate. The "history" that I am referring to, is that each of these 37 sold listings were prior cancelled or expired listings that were re-listed to appear as a fresh, new listing. So it appears that the home may have sold in 1-3 months, when in fact some listings had prior market history aging it well over 6-12 months. In my own informal analysis, it seemed that the majority of these listings had a price reduction of 20-30%. Some of them became a foreclosure, which added to the drastic reduction. Others, were simply listed to high in the beginning and were forced to reduce.

My opinion is that homes listed with the same agent should remain with the same MLS number. Manipulating the system to create a "fresh" listing is not only a deception to a buyer, but it also contributes to inaccurate statistical reporting for the board as a whole. A good buyers agent will do the research and inform the client of any history to the listing. Of course, history is not necessarily a "bad" thing. It's just a piece of information that a buyer can use as part of their own due diligence when purchasing. Some buyers will become cautious if a home has been on the market for any length of time. Is there reason for concern? Sometimes. Usually, however, it remains on the market because it was priced too high. Sellers have this preconceived notion that they can intentionally price their home high, expecting a lower offer. Well today's buyer will not even give the high priced home a second look. Sure, they can make an offer; but if the seller is not even on the ball field they can't expect to stay in the game. Want to hit a home run? Throw a price that will make a buyer swing!