I just showed a listing of mine in an oceanfront condo tower to a buyer's agent and her client and she proudly handed me a color flyer for a new listing she just got in the building where she lives priced at $950,000. I glanced at this first floor unit price and asked her: "higher floor units in this building have been selling in the $500,000 right ?" to which she replied "Those are all gone, what is left is higher priced."
Now the irony is that my listing was purchased at the peak of the market for $700,000+ and is listed as a short sale for $450,000. You would think that her buyer was giving her a hint as to the common denominator for all declining market buyers: they are more often looking for steals, not just deals...
Now this is the perfect example of the old-time agent who was taught to take the listing at any price and that eventually the market or the seller's personal conditions will beat them down to reality.
It is actually funny that the Realtor's code of ethic classifies this type of behavior as unethical because it is misleading the seller in regards to market value and may cause financial loss to the seller. Funny, because there is no way to enforce that, unless the seller files a complaint...
In this declining market, agents taking such overpriced listings are artificially inflating the inventory and costing money to their sellers who will linger for a looooooong time on the market and will sell for less, if they ever sell. These same unethical and unprofessional agents also hurt our profession and need to find another profession.
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