Houses sold for much less than listed for originally.

[Levon J.]

Hi, I've noticed an interesting thing recently - some houses are being sold for much less than they were originally listed for. Not like when you would negotiate the price and bring it down by a couple thousands or so, but way more than that. As an example, a fourplex was listed for $200k last year. A month later the MLS showed that the fourplex was sold for $135k. An important thing to note is that an actual friend of mine made a $185k offer on that house, and was outbid, so the $135k final sale price seems a bit unrealistic.

Here's another example, was just closed on today: https://www.redfin.com/PA/Pittsburgh/807-Steuben-S...

This triplex was listed for $360k in January, which was a bit above the market price, but nothing crazy. Price was lowered by $10k a month later, as you can see in the MLS history. And then the cost was lowered to $200k on April 16, and it was sold for 173k on April 18.

Does anyone have any idea how this is even possible? Assuming that the owners do not suddenly become philanthropists and decide to sell their houses for half the price. Which in my experience does not happen as often as deals like this.