Deal . . or No Deal?

Another Steep Discount From Listing Price

If you have to sell Christmas week in what is already a soft market . . . you may not like the price.

This is the second instance I've seen of a property sold then accepting a very deep discount from the most recent list price. The home is located in Minneapolis, just northwest of Cedar Lake:

http://matrix.northstarmls.com/de.asp?k=411903X1JL0&p=DE-39406710-836

In this case, the last list price was $299,900; the selling price was $220,500, a 26% discount!

So did the Buyer get a deal?

I didn't see the interior, and therefore can't speak to either floor plan or condition (the home was a foreclosure). However, I do know the neighborhood, tax value (almost $400k), what the last Buyer paid ($490k in 2004), and the home's tortured selling history (almost 3(!) years of market time, starting at $539,900).

And perhaps most crucially, I've got a very educated guess about when the deal was struck: going by the off-market date, January 2, you'd infer that the Purchase Agreement was consummated right after Christmas, and that the Inspection occurred shortly thereafter (most Inspection Contigencies play out within a week).

Based on the foregoing, I'd guess "yes" -- unless the Inspection turned up a major issue (or several of them).