Trophy sellers try keeping up with the Rybolovlevs

Beneath the glitz and headlines generated by record prices and $100 million listings is the reality that many trophy homes in white-glove buildings struggle to find buyers. Some are even being forced to trade for as much as a 25 percent discount.

While some have seen the phenomenon as the result of sellers looking at the market through rose-tinted lenses, many brokers feel they are simply being too ambitious with their pricing. The bevy of $100 million listings that have recently hit the market have made sellers feel as if there is an endless supply of international billionaires hungry for Park Avenue homes, according to the New York Times.

“There is a perception that you can put anything on the market, that people will come along and buy it,” Robby Browne, a broker with the Corcoran Group, told the Times. Browne added that he has been asked by sellers to list apartments at what he felt were unrealistic prices.

In fact, since January 2012, 56 percent of the listings priced $3 million and up sold below the final asking price, while just 19 percent sold for the original list price. However, the remaining 25 percent sold above the final asking price, data collected by the Times show. [NYT] –Christopher Cameron