Throwing Cold Water on a Hot Listing in Coldwater Canyon
Thanks go to keen-eyed Kate of the indispensable south Valley real estate blog May 5th and Everything After (so named because she launched it on Cinco de Mayo in 2006 and just celebrated her second anniversary blogging there – Congratulations, Kate!) for this “price discovery” she posted little more than a week ago:
3540 Coldwater Canyon Ave.
Studio City, CA 91604
$699,000
Kate notes that this gated 3 + 3 Coldwater Canyon home with good bones was reduced within a span of 50 days from $1.3 million to $699K. In a word: Wow!
But wait … hold that offer … what’s this?? Rub your eyes and look at the listing price again – suddenly, as of today, it’s $1,199,000!
Huh?
A call to listing agent Burt Bakman of Re/Max On the Boulevard Estates hasn’t been returned.
We don’t think the market has made a turnaround in the last 10 days. So, absent an explanation from listing agent Bakman, we’ll venture a scenario as to what may have happened.
We’re guessing the truly remarkable price point of $699K (in relation to the listing prices of comparable housing stock) generated a tsunami of interest and offers. One or two offers, from especially savvy buyers - possibly investors - were marginally above the asking price. This flood of attention triggered flashbacks of bidding wars from the golden days of real estate yore – circa 2005 or so.
Flush with the excitement and heat of the moment, it’s easy to imagine our sellers and their agent leaping to drop the I-bomb – a price increase. And not just a modest one. One with conviction and courage.
Oops!! Seems I may have overtaxed my imagination. I made contact with Burt Bakman and when asked to comment, his explanation was simple, easy and credible: the property was headed toward a short sale, thus the very aggressive asking price (although it likely was never approved by the lender). Bakman said it then “made a U-turn and went the traditional way,” suggesting to me that the lender has given the seller some breathing room to market the home conventionally and thus maximize the price to the benefit of all parties. That way, Bakman says, “the bank could be paid off, commissions could be paid.”
And, I would add, the market could maintain some semblance, some appearance of normalcy.
