Contract Date vs Closing Date

I rely heavily upon the contract date. That's the day that the parties agreed upon the "fair market value" of the property and it was effectively sold. Closing date is the date that the money changed hands and the title to the property transferred. If a sale is old, it reflects old values.

When performing an analysis of recently sold properties to determine a reasonable offer, should you look at the contract date or closing date? For example, I saw a property that had a contract date of 4/15/05 and a closing date of 1/20/06 and another that had a contract date of 11/29/04 with closing date of 1/31/06. Are the prices really effective in 2006, or should they be thought of as the price in 2005 or 2004?

Keep in mind that if a "contract date" is in 2005--it was overpriced from the git-go. It may be difficult to get this person to move below the contract date price since they're probably underwater at the moment (unless the property has something "special" going for it). If it is simply one of the "cookie-cutter" boomer condos, there will be thousands of better deals to chose from. Look for those who are growing weary of paying condo fees, property management fees, and PITI--the list grows day-by-day.