In one South Carolina golf community, price drops give hint of larger picture

        Because I own a vacation home there, I am on the mailing list for a few real estate agents who list and sell properties in Pawleys Plantation in Pawleys Island, SC.  Occasionally they send out market reports indicating

properties that have sold recently, and one I received today was interesting in that it indicated not only the price homes sold for but also their original listing prices.  The conclusion I draw from this admittedly small sample is that sellers of homes in stable golf communities may not be dropping their prices as much as buyers expect; or, alternately, they may be pricing them initially low enough that buyers are content with a drop of just a few percentage points in the negotiation.

        Owners of condos in the sample tended to be a little more flexible in dropping their prices than were owners of single-family homes.  In Pawleys Planation, owners of the two condos sold them at prices 13% and 6% less than the original asking price (percentages rounded off).  The discounts off list price for the four single-family homes that sold were just 2%, 3%, 4% and 5%.

        Each real estate negotiation has its own particular calculus. But these numbers at Pawleys are not dissimilar from what real estate agents in other areas of the south are telling me.  The conclusion for anyone searching for a golf community home is to decide what a home is worth to you and, if a few percentage points gets you there, do the deal.  You don't necessarily win when the other guy loses.