Those keeping track of the Palm Beach properties up for grabs may have noticed a sizable change at the top of the price scale in the local multiple listing service.
The Palm Beach Board of Realtors MLS’ most expensive listing — a $99 million whopper for a newly completed house on an ocean-to-lake lot at 1744 S. Ocean Blvd. — was withdrawn this month by the Corcoran Group. But its absence is only temporary, said Paulette Koch, who had co-listed it in February with her son, Dana Koch.
“The property is still available, and we are still fielding inquiries,” she said, adding that the 23,000-square-foot house a half-mile north of Sloan’s Curve will re-enter MLS at the start of the winter season if it hasn’t sold. The seven-bedroom custom home was completed last year and stands on a lot of nearly 2 acres with 175 feet of waterfront on both sides.
Paulette Koch declined to say why the listing was withdrawn. But it’s not uncommon to take properties — even prominent ones — off the market during the off-season, real estate observers say.
“You shouldn’t draw any conclusions,” says Palm Beach Board of Realtors President Cappy Abraham, broker at Palm Beach Residential Properties. “Clients may take a property off the market for any number of reasons, especially during the summer. It’s not unusual, particularly in a market (where prices are) trending upward.”
Even if temporary, the $99 million listing’s exit made room for another property to rise to the top of the MLS price list. And that’s a house that’s not even been built yet. The 1.9-acre vacant ocean-to-lake lot at 1900 S. Ocean Blvd. is marketed at $65 million by agent Jay Dewing of Sotheby’s International Realty. The town has green-lighted a 20,000-square foot British Colonial-style “spec” mansion and guesthouse there that could be completed by spring 2016.
Following it is a 4-acre estate that entered the market three years ago at $59 million, and its price has never wavered. The former home of the late John Kluge at 89 Middle Road has two vintage houses – one facing the ocean – and several outbuildings, along with extensive gardens. It’s co-listed by the Kochs, and Carole Hogan and Carol Digges of Brown Harris Stevens.
Days on the market
So why would a seller want to take a property off the market for a few months? The reasons vary.
* Sometimes a client is heading out of town and simply wants to close up and secure the house for the summer months. And that means the property won’t be at its best for tours by house-hunters, especially if the windows and doors have been shuttered for hurricane season, blocking views and darkening interiors, said Palm Beach Board of Realtors Vice President Jeffrey Cloninger.
“It’s sometimes not very pleasant to be showing a listing that looks like the inside of a tin can,” said Cloninger, an agent with Sotheby’s International Realty.
* In an evolving market, taking a breather from MLS allows a seller to re-evaluate the value of a property and make price adjustments based on changing market conditions, Abraham said. As a result, a property may re-enter MLS at a different price – and in today’s go-go market, the new price is often higher.
* Taking a property off the market and later re-listing it “re-sets” an important number in the multiple listing service — the total “days on market” it has been for sale. For some agents, whittling down the apparent days-on-the-market number might be a plus for properties that have been listed for a while but haven’t sold for some reason, because a stale property can be harder to move, Cloninger said.
“The ride can look a lot shorter when it’s taken off the market,” he said.
Real estate agents, of course, can search the MLS database to see the history of listings for a property and determine how long a property has actually been for sale, even if there were gaps, Cloninger added.
In any case, the days-on-the-market scenario wouldn’t seem to apply to the Kochs’ property, which was for sale only a few months before its listing was pulled.
Busy summer?
Cloninger sees an advantage to keeping properties on the market even during what, traditionally, is the island’s slow season. Echoing other agents, he said this summer is shaping up to be an active one because house-hunters are facing a tight inventory of better-quality properties. Having a property listed in MLS can keep it front and center, he added.
“If someone comes into town in August or September to buy real estate, they’re not as likely to be ‘tire-kickers’ as they might be at other times,” Cloninger said.
The Kochs’ $99 million price tag, by the way, approached the one that had been carried by the most expensive single property ever sold in Palm Beach. That was $125 million, set by Donald Trump before he sold 515 N. County Road for a reported $95 million in 2008. Lawrence A. Moens Associates acted for Trump, and the aforementioned Digges representing the buyer, an entity linked to Russian businessman Dmitry Rybolovlev.
And that sale closed smack in the middle of the summer.