Our house is listed for $325K, flurry of activty the 1st week, 2nd week nothing.

We plan on the following: in two weeks if there's no more interest, we'll drop the price to $314.9K; if no interest for 4 weeks, we'll drop to $299.9K.

Does dropping the price in this way make a house more attractive to prospective buyers or is it a turn off (people thinking something is wrong)?

Depends on where you positioned yourself vis-à-vis the true market value of the property. You might be chasing the Market down.

We've also had people get aggressive and want us to advertise that they're going to sell their property and the Price will be REDUCED $1000 Every Day until it Sells (and it Worked !)

More recently, one Seller said he'd Reduce the Price $5000 every Week until it Sold but it didn't; so then he got scared and took it off the market altogether.

These are strange times ! I don't think it says that there's something wrong with your property . . . . just demonstrates some seriousness and want to draw attention to the Offering; but IF your price is "off the wall", it will look like you're just playing games . . . . OR happen to be very desperate.

Good Luck !

GM why are you selling? Weak motivation might not let you see the market for what it truly is or you might not have a broker/agent who will get real with you instead of blowing sweet nothings in your ear.

1st week a new listing is always FRESH on the market with about 80 percent of the activity and the 2nd week the other 20 percent. After that if there is a healthy supply of new listings hitting the market your property get's stale.

You said "FLURRY" of activity. What is that 3,10,15 walk thorughs in a week?? If so did your broker/agent save comments from other broker/agents and buyers about the listing price,layout,square footage etc.??

If not you will have no idea why all the activity and not contract. You can't fix what you don't know is broken to get it sold wihtout testing,tracking,and feedback on your property.

Usually even if it's a little overpriced but you had activity you would at least get a low offer coming in.

Every property will sell for a price the answer is will you sell for the price the market is providing??

As far a chasing the market here is the point. Say there are 5 homes 3 bed 2 bath's all similar sq ft priced from 150k to 175k.

Yours is listed at 173k the 1st week in 2 weeks you decide to drop the price to 167k but thers have dropped their price and now the range is 145k to 170k. So 3 weeks later you are still in the top bracket. What you have to do is drop it low say to 150k to 155k to be at the bottom of the pricing and appeal as a deal to the most sets of buyers. Then when they get emotionally involved they will go up more in price.

If you always stay at the top of the pricing curve you will get hardly any offers and will most likley have appraisal issues for loan purposes.

good luck- no legal advice

The Title of this Thread ought to be "Lowering the Asking Price ????"

I don't know why I didn't notice this yesterday; but the Title presumes that the Seller can exercise some kind of control over the Selling Price. He has little control. The Buyer determines the Selling Price.

Unfortunately, Sellers have control over only three (3) things:

1) The Condition of the Property;

2) Who the Listing Broker is (if any); and

3) The Asking or Listing Price.

The secret to setting an effective Asking or Listing Price is that it must be low enough to elicit a response from the Marketplace, and yet, still be high enough to satisfy the Seller's objectives. All the Seller can do is participate in making his property appear to be attractively priced so as to garner the attention of those Buyers who are currently active in the Market.

Hopefully, at least one of those market participants will tender an Offer which will serve to initiate a period of negotiations between the Buyer and Seller and result in a Contract Selling Price which both are equally somewhat satisfied with. Then, if there is no Bank/Appraiser involvement, we can move to a Closing at the agreed upon Selling Price.

The Market will always respond to properties that are priced appropriately; but these days, many Sellers are not able to price their properties properly and still meet their own individual objectives. That's our current dilemma !

Ok, I am still really a newbie here so I don't know if this will be allowed but can you post the listing link here for us to see the property? Or post photos or a link to photos so we can see the property?

I am a regular on another real estate forum and it helps so much to determine how the house actually "shows" to evaluate whether or not to drop the asking price.

Also, what are the comps in your area? Your realtor should be able to give you those. You want to price the house just a little below comps if you really want it to sell.

Also, I cannot stress the importance of this--your home needs to be in immaculate condition, all repairs completed and staged so that it appeals to the broadest range of buyers.

Price is everything... period.

Agree 98%, Price, Condition and marketing...Today’s Real Estate buyer has Champaign taste on a kool-aid budget.

The lower the price the more attracted to the buyers.

That's it!

The only caution I see to this approach is you will look desperate to sell and buyers will feel they have an advantage over you when it comes to negotiating. Even when you get down to 299k buyers will still want a deal and offer under what it is listed for, despite the fact you have already come down quite a bit.

I find that whether you are priced just right for the market or well under, buyers still want to feel they are getting a deal.

This is one of the reasons you need to be priced right out of the gate, not reducing so quickly early on, just makes you look desperate to sell and can weaken your negotiating stance.

Nearly three months have passed since the OP was pondering this . . . . he was here to ask that one question; and then he was gone.

There're valuable insights awaiting him here IF he ever ventures back to this place; but I don't think he's thinking about this matter any more.

Dropping price would work, but you need to do it in very precised way. Make sure to analyze the market very carefully before you drop it. Statistically you should have the heaviest traffic during the first three weeks. If you miss this waive of buyers, you have to think of adjusting the price in order to gain top money.