Who knows what Gov. Deval Patrick will do for his next act, but let’s just hope he steers clear of real estate!

Patrick and his wife, Diane, put their Milton manse on the market for a hefty $1.5 million, instantly generating some overhyped stories that included what this may mean – or not – for our governor’s future plans.

The fact is, this is the governor’s third attempt going on four years to unload his 6,800-square-foot, six-bed, five-bath 1920s colonial. (It also includes nine fireplaces and a “dream kitchen,” according to the ad.) In fact, the timing appears more to do with Patrick’s inability to find a buyer – which has forced him to dip in and out of the market since 2009  – than any big strategic plan for the future.

Despite having once served on the board of now defunct subprime lender, Ameriquest,  Patrick has made the classic seller’s mistake of starting out too high and only grudgingly, and too slowly, cutting the price.

If nothing else, this may be a good reality check for Patrick, who has spent most of his six years in office obsessed with green energy, all but ignoring the many woes of the Bay State’s perpetually messed-up real estate market.

Bad Timing?

Now, our ever-amiable chief executive certainly has a good sense of political timing – after all he managed to rocket out of nowhere back in 2006 to claim the state’s top elected office.

Yet Patrick’s timing, at least when it comes to real estate, leaves something to be desired.

For starters, he initially chose a terrible time to put his Milton mansion on the market – June 2009. You couldn’t find a worse time to list your house, with the economy mired in the Great Recession and home prices practically at their lowest point.

Moreover, Patrick’s listing price, the “dream kitchen” notwithstanding, was completely out of whack – nearly $2 million at a time when high-end home sales had ground nearly to a halt.

The big markup was doubling mystifying given that Deval and his wife Diane had bought the house back in 1989 for $562,885. It’s nice to make a little money on your house, but to hold out for a $1.4 million gain? That’s certainly aggressive.

The governor pulled it off the market in five months later, after cutting the price down to $1.7 million.

Round two came in April 2010. Amid a frenzy of sales sparked by the expiration of the home-buyer tax credit, Patrick put his Milton mansion back on the market.

But this time, Patrick was too late, not too early. The tax credit expired at the end of that April. And that, in turn, triggered an epic, double-dip in a real estate market that had been all ginned up by buyers looking to cash in on the $8,000 tax credit.

Eight months later, with prices cratering once again, Patrick pulled his house off the market a second time.

Now it’s round three. The governor, who is working with Coldwell Banker, has put his Milton manse back on the market, this time for $1.5 million.

That represents a 20-percent-plus discount from the first listing price, back in 2009, of more than $1.9 million. Still, what’s a few hundred thousand here or when, when you are talking about an “elegant, brick-sided, beauty,” which, as the listing puts it, is “entering 2013 with style and substance.”

With sales picking up and prices likely not far behind, the third time may just be the charm for Patrick. Still, given the past history, I wouldn’t be ruling out another price change before a deal is done.

Just Another Deluded Seller?

Patrick may be a sharp guy, but he clearly has fallen for the common seller’s delusion of overvaluing his house. And he appears to be paying for it as he spins his wheels, three years and counting.

If there is one big lesson from our years-long real estate downturn, sellers who overshoot with the listing price, and then come down slowly by dribs and drabs, don’t fare as well as others who take more decisive action.

In fact, Patrick needs to look no further than Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee for an example of how to unload an overpriced house amid a real estate recession.

Now Chafee certainly made his mistakes – he overpaid for his Providence Victorian, shelling out $939,000 for it in 2006, at the height of the real estate bubble.

Yet he also figured out how to find a buyer in a tough market.

Chafee put his handsome Providence home on the market in February 2011 at $889,000 and kept dropping the price until he found a buyer that spring ready to shell out $729,000.

That’s about the same discount Patrick is now offering – over 20 percent. But the difference is Chafee sold his house is six months, not three years.

Hopefully, the third time will be the charm for Patrick, with the real estate market finally looking like it’s on the mend.

Stay tuned.

Scott Van Voorhis can be reached at sbvanvoorhis@hotmail.com.