I was just looking through the Century 21 website dreaming of winning the lottery and getting hold of some moster villa when I noticed that a couple of the top-end places have had price cuts of US$200,000 - One had an original asking price of a whopping $1.3 million, ok fair enough, but the other dropped 200K from only $879,000. What sort of price cut this that for heavens sake? How did they arrive at the asking price in the first place? This is from a company which several respected members of DR1 have praised highly in the past for their reliability and all sorts of fine attributes.
200K price cut? I think it's a bit steep, even if the places have been for sale for donkey's years.
It begs the question, how on earth can you expect to know what a property's value really is in the DR ?
Go on then, 'it's worth what someone's willing to pay for it'
True but why are the vendors seemingly happy to see these properties sitting idle for years?
I suppose if you've got enough dough, time doesn't have such an important role in the scheme of things. What do you think?
ill tell you how people arrive at these prices
1/they test the market to see if anyone's interested in the house at $800k
2/ no bites; the r/est guy calls them and says you're over-priced...DROP THE PRICE OR WAIT IT OUT!
3/sentimental value is applied to the price, as is the owners personal veiw of the houses worth based on his input, level of greed and understanding of the housing market. All of these factors are as you can see purely 'subjective'
4/for many it's about making money ie build some condo's jump the price up and get what you can. This is not unusual though, builders do this and business is infact defined by this behaviour
5/ real estate people know that if you're looking to buy a home in the DR, and in order to do this you must have money in the bank. i mean if you were broke its unlikely you'd be looking at a $800k house...or even a $200k house...yeah?? Like many islands in the caribbean that have magnificient veiws and magnificient prices, the DR is in many respects is the same with many attractive features . For years it was under-valued. i bought land 4 minutes outside of cabarete for $40m2 50m to the beach 3 years ago!!!! i knew as soon as i saw it this land was under-priced and i bought it! What im saying is that for many this is a business to build and sell houses; i have something you want (home)...you have a lot of something i want (cash)
However the MARKET will always determine what IS THE market PRICE!!!
So relax and remember this; those that can DO and those that can't WILL NEVER HAVE A $800K HOUSE IN THE DR.
