Ditto La Jolla Renter’s suggestion. You need to be at least 5% to 10% below the closest comps for both recent sales and current listings. Otherwise you’re going to chase these prices downhill over the next year or more.
An Example:
I have a friend that lives in Carlsbad in a fairly typical condo development. She put her unit on the market six months ago at $410K (she bought it in 2000 for $180K) because two units had sold above $400K in mid-2005. There were four other units for sale priced between $360K and $400K, but hers has a very nice view and more upgrades. She got an offer early for around $405K but it fell out of escrow because they had an argument over closing costs. Big mistake. Six months later she’s offering her unit at $360K and the other four units are priced between $299K and $340K. Nothing’s sold in a year. She hasn’t even had a lowball offer in months. My guess is she’ll end up selling this thing next year sometime at around $325K and the others will clear between $275K and $300K, still all modestly overpriced by the way. If she had just listed it at $380K six months ago it probably would have sold. The point: Don’t be her.
