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I agree the small drops are annoying and don't create additional interest. If for example a person is approved for a 200K mortgage, they will still look at homes priced up to 210 figuring they can negotiate down. Therefore, dropping from 210 to 209 isn't going to bring in more buyers. You would have to drop about 5% in order to hit a new pool of buyers. In this case would lower the price from 210 to 199. Now you not only have interest from the buyers who were looking to negotiate the lower price but also those who refused to look at anything over 200.
If Im really interested in a house Ill lowball to my desired price... depends on how quick you want to move. Im in no hurry to buy and have been looking on and off for more than a year... made one offer in that time but lost to someone else that same day. That one was priced competitively from the start however...
Someone around here kept dropping the price $500 every week or two all year until September when they stopped dropping the price and its still for sale.
Get the sold comps and figure out what your house will sell for based on what has recently sold that is comparable to your house. Add or subtract for extras you have or don't have.
Drop the price to that amount in time for the November rush.
This. It doesn't matter what other homes are doing. The appraisal is very important. That is what you should base your home pricing on. I agree with the others that teeny tiny price drops don't do much for you. It either makes you look like a tightwad, or like you're not really motivated to sell. Do a larger price drop, or none at all. Also, the longer a home stays on the market, the worse it looks for potential buyers. It is to your advantage to get a contract on it sooner rather than later.
Thank you for the reply's! My agent said he wanted the listing to be bumped up or to show up often as an update with a new price on the MLS. I don't think we are going to do the small drops though.
This is an old school technique to keep a listing in front of real estate agents...back when agents were the dominant force in finding homes for clients.
I don't think your agent realizes that many people sign up for alerts for specific homes and such on home search sites. I think most would find it weird to get an email twice a week with a $1,000 price drop.
If this strategy worked, lots of agents & sellers would use it. I keep a close watch on listings in my part of my metro area and almost never see anything like this.
You made a 2% drop but call a $1,000 drop small. Are these homes over $400,000? Are you going to make up the lost 1% every two month it cost you to hold the house vacant? Come November, don't you think a lot of other people will list too when the snowbirds fly in? If sales trends historically show more and higher sales then it might be better to wait if you can afford it.
I can just speak for myself, but a series of $1,000 drops suggest someone who is not serious about selling. It seems like $5-20k drops signal someone who want to get the job done.
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