This makes me smile

167 Makawao St
MLS: 2703131

Living Area: 2,179
Land: 10,039
Beds: 4
Baths: 3
Price: 999,000
Occupancy: Vacant

This place reeks of desperation for a flipper. Said flipper bought this house for $950,000 in May, 2005. It was described as "Older home needs some TLC and fixing-up." Its living area back then was 2,070.

Three months later in August, 2005, the house reappeared on the market at... I can't believe this... $1,395,000. What could you possibly do to a house in three months that would justify an extra $445k? The house was completely remodeled, and apparently had some footage added on, but dang, it was remodeled, not rebuilt. Yet, the house sat vacant and on the market for 271 days during which the price dropped gradually to $1,150,000. It was withdrawn on May 27th, 2006.

On May 29th, 2006, the place is relisted at $1,150,000, sits for just 21 days with no price adjustment, and is then withdrawn. This is in spite of the description proclaiming "SUPER DEAL!! BEST BUY IN KALAMA TRACT!!" Apparently not.

So the house is listed yet again under the current MLS on February, 2007 at $1,249,000. Yeah, I didn't see that coming, you'd think I'd learn by now. If it doesn't sell the first time, the logical thing to do is raise the price. Someday I'll get the hang of how that works. So, predictably, the house has been on the market for another 230+ days. Yes it's still vacant. Over time, they've lowered the price to the current $999,000.

While at 230 days, this house has been on the market under this MLS longer than 80% of the other houses active in Kailua, if you look at the cumulative total, the owner's been trying to unload this for over 500 days, and that's not including the periods where it wasn't active. My apologies for the run-on sentence, but I'm too lazy to rephrase right now.

Update (1/16/08):
Still on the market at 999k. Appears to be rented.