Proof that in this market, it pays not to linger on a price

27 Meadowbank Road, Old Greenwich, was brought to market on June 7th priced at $3.8 million. Buyer response, or lack thereof, must have been clear immediately so listing agent Krissy Blake didn’t hesitate and immediately dropped it to $3.3 million at the end of the first week. That did the trick, a contract was entered into and the house just closed at that $3.3.

Owners have a tendency to cling too long to their initial price; it’s human nature, and a common error to cling to an imagined, already spent windfall, and insist that “all it takes is the right buyer to come along”. That’s not a good strategy – the problem is always the price, but it’s an even more egregious mistake in the market we're experiencing because the “right” buyer is definitely already out there; in fact, there are probably several, so if he’s not appearing within days, your price is way too high. In this case, it was $500,000 too high, but there’s nothing wrong with an aspirational price if it’s quickly adjusted to reality.

This is what was done here, and congratulations to Krissy Blake, and to her clients for listening to her.

The buyers, by the way, are from Riverside, so they are probably aware of Meadowbank’s proclivity to kiss the sea, and are likely to have insisted that a Zodiac life raft and a family pack of swim fins be included in the deal. That’s smart negotiating.

Meadowbank Road, August 28, 2011: good night, Irene