How Not To Price Your Condo For Sale

Today's chuckle is brought to you buy sellers of Las Salinas condos here in Key West.

First, let's check in with the two cheapest condos for sales at this time. Unbelievably, they are both 3 bedrooms/2 bath condos listed For Sale under $200,000.

Here's the cheapest one and how it is marketed:

One of the largest units at Las Salinas, 3 beds and 2 full baths. Complex offers a swimming pool and parking. This condo is the cheapest 3 bedroom at Las Salinas!

MLS: 110936
Address: 3930 S. Roosevelt Blvd.

Unit: E-308

Original Price: $194,000

Listing Price: $194,000

Square Feet: 1221

Price Per Square Foot: $159.62

Bedrooms: 3

Bathrooms: 2

Year Built: 1991

Condo Fees: About $432 a month

Okay, so this means this unit is on what they call the third floor, really the fourth floor, when you consider first floor is covered parking spaces underneath the condos on what is called First floor.

From above, Las Salinas would look like a giant cross. There are four "wings" (I call them spokes or legs) East, South, West, North. And at the end of each leg is a "foot" maybe 5 units long.

That said, let's look at the next cheapest condo out at Las Salinas . . . and whereas the first example is simply a sale with no b.s. short sales or REO attached, this next one is a "short sale".

Why be a tenant any longer with prices this low? Enjoy the benefits of homeownership for less than monthly rent, with a 20% down payment. This 3 bedroom and 2 bath Las Salinas Condominium is located on the 3rd floor with a westerly exposure. Currently leased month to month for $1800, this property is also well suited as an investment rental property. Low monthly condo fees are $432 & include exterior building maintenance & insurance, operation of the community & extended basic cable TV. Current annual property taxes are $2456. The community offers a swimming pool, near public transportation and close to the Atlantic promenade & Smather's Beach.

MLS#:Active-Short Sale For Sale

Original Price: $239,000

Listing Price:$196,000

Address: 3930 S Roosevelt Blvd

Unit#S306

City: Key West

Area:Area 3-4

Subivision: Las Salinas

Mile Marker: 4

Days on Market: 113

Sq Ft. 1,050

Price per sq. ft: $186.67

Bedrooms: 3

Bathrooms: 2.0

Year Built: 1994

Prop Type: Condo

Taxes: $2,455.95

Tax Year: 2008

Exemptions:None

Condo Fees: $432/Monthly

Should we point out the most incredibly delicious two sentences in the description for the above "Short Sale"? What is too, too obvious to any Key West Real Estate buyer from 2008 who believed the baloney of the local NAR who was still tooting on the Fog Horn which said "There's Never Been A Better Time To Buy A Home" is this: a 20% downpayment last year on a new home purchase has already "vaporized" into thin air.

Let's run that Realtor's descriptive braindead-speak in the two opening sentences by you again:

"Why be a tenant any longer with prices this low? Enjoy the benefits of homeownership for less than monthly rent, with a 20% down payment."

To which I say, "Uh, Real Estate Marketing Dude or Dudette, I could enjoy the benefits of home ownership right now . . . for less than I pay rent . . . only if I paid 100% "CASH" on one of these overpriced condos. Right? "

Of course, let's not discuss the probability that the actual sales price of these units will fall another 20 to 50% in the next 3 to 5 years. Meaning any downpayment you make will be "upside down" soon enough. We can't suggest this heresy. That's a no-no in Sunny Day Real Estate Land. That's being doomsayer. That's being a gloomy gus. Let's forget these black crepe paper hanging pronouncements from people who have no vested interest in "talking the book" of Real Estate. Instead, let's listen to the fools who talked people into buying throughout the Bubble and the Bubble's top.

Which brings me to this next point about Real Estate "For Sale" in this one condo building, Las Salinas:


Would you expect to pay more . . . or less . . . for a condo with one fewer bedroom?

Well, there are sellers at Las Salinas with 2 bedrooms/2 bathrooms (one bedroom fewer and less square space overall) who are asking . . . and I'm not making this up . . . $224,000 to $280,000 for units which are obviously going to have to come down in price . . . BIG TIME . . . for the owner to sell.

It's like this, Folks: If I can shuffle my feet down a hallway in the same building and same wing, and one unit has an extra bedroom with two bathrooms . . . for a cheaper price (as in $28,000 to $86,000 cheaper) . . . which condo is going to sell more quickly?

How can Realtors expect to keep a straight face asking such unaffordable prices for a 2/2 condo which is much higher in price than bigger and better units in the same damn building?

Do Realtors and Sellers not understand 90% of the buyers used to be fooled with bullshit, and now it has flipped to where only 10% of possible buyers haven't learned how to suss through the same old bullshit which the NAR has been pumping out since 1996?

As always,

Carpe Diem . . .

Rock Trueblood


p.s. Don't even get me started as to why the 3/2s (the first two examples) are still not "affordable" and why they do not make any sense whatsoever in today's market meltdown. Realtors are not known for being truthful and upfront with the ignorant masses. It's much easier to obfuscate and bullshit to sell crappy deals which make no economic sense.

I will cover what is wrong with Housing all over America today in a post later this week . . . and it all boils down to one simple word:

AFFORDABILITY