When to price drop? (agents, Realtor, sellers, sale)

[Jedi5]

Why is it that there are homes on the market where the price is not dropped?
I've seen so many homes on the market for 100 days and the price stays the same.

So my question is...

Why doesn't the home seller drop the price? I understand you don't want to lose money but there has to come a time when the realtor will no longer be able to anything for you if the home is not priced correctly.

Our neighbor had his house on the market for about 1 yr. They finally sold it last month but it took 1 yr and a $100K price drop. I think they went through 3-4 different agents too.

[Topaz]

I don't know. We dropped our price substantially in order to sell it in 45 days in a terrible market. I had no interest in paying holding costs for a year.

[Brandon Hoffman]

It normally comes down to seller motivation. Some sellers can't or won't drop the price because of needs. Other sellers are time motivated, even if it means adjusting the price for a sale that meets their time frame.

[PotterGeek]

I think alot of sellers are still in denial about the market. I think alot of sellers would be in negative equity and they can't afford to drop the price. I started searching in another (and actually more desirable) county because the market where I was looking is artificially inflated. By that I mean 95% of the homes are just sitting, clogging the market. No one wants to truly sell, so they wait for an idiot buyer.

So, I started looking in a county more up to date with the CURRENT market conditions...

[Rakin]

Brandon nailed it about motivation. Some sellers want to sell but don't have to and are not highly motivated to take a loss on their home.

We are currently downsizing from a large expensive home to a smaller empty nester home. It takes awhile to sell in our price range and we have it at a good price. If I sell it in the next year, Ok but if it takes another year I can live here until then.

I'm not highly motivated to dump my house.

[middle-aged mom]

Every seller decides if they want their price or to get sold.

[PotterGeek]

Originally Posted by middle-aged mom

Every seller decides if they want their price or to get sold.

Truer words have never been spoken

[Jedi5]

Originally Posted by leavingbyron

I think alot of sellers are still in denial about the market.

I have to agree with this. I just sold my home after 2 weeks on the market.
I priced my home not the "appraised" value or what I thought it was worth, but more what I thought would sell it.

I think many sellers still think they will get what their house is worth.
I just saw one house drop $40K in two weeks.

But what about empty homes on the market? Someone is paying the morgtage. Why won't they drop the price on an empty home just to unload it?

[Brandon Hoffman]

Originally Posted by leavingbyron

I think alot of sellers are still in denial about the market.

It isn't denial. It's motivation. If they have to sell by a time frame and time is the true motivation they'll price it to do so. Otherwise it's money motivation and that means waiting until someone is willing to pay the price or staying put.

[scuba steve]

A lot of people I knew back in Seattle were in denial. It can't happen here, blah blah blah. All past the peak of the market last July and even when the media started picking up on it. Month to month price increases were replaced with looking at the market year to year figures (because month to month went negative), and slowly people started to get that what was going on in most of the nation in 2008 might, just maybe happen there. One coworker who was trying to sell his place and talking about how awesome the market was started sounding more and more like that former Iraqi minister of information. The one that talked about how great things were going for them during the invasion while it was completely obvious to the rest of the world that it was the exact opposite.