This weekend Joe Z. pointed out the pettiness of minuscule price cuts, which have no purpose except to bump homes up to the top of a search for newly discounted homes, usually just in time for weekend open houses. The example he used, a studio in Edgewater whose price dropped by just $4 from its original list price of $123,900, is even more obnoxious than he realized — those four dollars dropped off one at a time, first on May 1, and again on June 12, June 29, and July 30. Can this home’s listing agent really argue that he’s helping a home that’s been on and off the market since October 2007?
Below are more examples of this kind of nonsensical behavior, price cuts of $1 and $10 in two instances, and regular cuts of $100 prior to weekends in another. These aren’t the only “stupid Realtor tricks” from this weekend, either — just the most ridiculous examples I found from a quick search.
- A three-bedroom condo on the Near North Side listed on June 6 for $325,000; cut the price by $100 on July 16, by $100 on July 24, and by $1 on July 31.
- A two-bedroom condo in University Village listed on June 24 for $293,400; the price dropped by $10 on July 31.
- A one-bedroom condo in Portage Park listed on April 3 for $129,900; the price dropped by $100 on June 10, $100 on June 18, $100 on July 2, and $100 on Aug. 2.