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Originally Posted by dogmom
I bet you are very close to an offer..why don't you wait a couple days and see if any offers appear first?? you can always drop mid week...just a thought.
I am going to give it to the middle of the week and see what happens here, then will talk to hubby about lowering the price again. We thought when we dropped 15,000 last week we would have more interest. Nope, not yet. Back in NorCal the prices are dropping like bombs too so we should be ok on that end...
It's kind of a crap shoot isn't it?
Although, if someone is interested, they can ALWAYS write an offer at whatever price they are comfortable with, instead of waiting for you to drop. What a nutso game  |
The house we're in escrow for now was actually on the market a short time last year. I only saw it online then and I really liked it. We weren't ready to buy then but even if we were, we never would've put an offer on it because it was priced too high. So yeah, people can always write an offer and I know lots of people lowball, but we weren't in the mindset to totally lowball someone and our realtor probably wouldn't have been too keen to try either.
When it came back on the market this month, they'd fixed some things up and priced it 89% of the price last year (and 86% of its original list last year). Granted, the market came down since last year so these sound like bigger drops than if it were originally listed this year. It wasn't underpriced, but priced well -- our comps showed it was at the lower end of comparable listings and middle for recent solds/pending. If anything, that tells me it was overpriced last year or someone else would've bought.
Knowing the market, we probably could've/should've gotten it for a bit less than list, but we didn't want to risk it and offered full price the very day it went on the market because it was not only a house we loved, but we knew wouldn't last very long and might end up competing w/ someone. Even though our market has held up well compared to surrounding counties (that are dropping crazy here in Northern California), most houses are still priced too high, and coming down only in increments over the months until they finally sell. Those that are priced well are gone quickly, often within the week of listing and a few have had bidding wars.
Anyway, I'm just trying to say that I think if everything else is right with your house, the price drop might be what you need and if you're able to do it, do it sooner rather than later. Even if you're willing to entertain much lower offers, buyers might not know it or want to try. Example, when we looked at houses, we remembered them as the $700k fixer and the $650k one by the park. Not, the $700k fixer we might be able to get down to $650k, etc. And remembering it as the $700k fixer psychologically made us think of it as the overpriced house w/ the sellers who were out of touch w/ reality. Even though we did expect there to be
some room for negotiation, we don't know how far you're willing to go. At best, we'd look at an asking price and take 3% off because that's the average of what homes have been selling for, 97% of asking. But that 97% wasn't an expectation, just a hope, and not all buyers knew that #.
Brookdaleresident --Part of me thinks you should wait a couple days before dropping the price since you had so much interest at open house and it can take a day or two for a buyer to get an offer together. On the other hand, if you had that much interest (and open house goers do see other people are there and interested) and then add a price drop, I can see it could cause a frenzy, esp since it's fresh in everyone's minds and presumably they're still excited about the house and then the price drop just makes them think they better jump before someone else takes it. I've been able to talk myself out of a house after thinking about it a week -- maybe strike while you're hot.
And have your realtor call anyone she has #s for to give them a "heads up" about the price drop, ie she's doing them a "favor" letting them know since there was so much interest at open house. Then, when you get your first offer, have her call others waiting in the wings to let them know there's not only a price drop but already got an offer, they'd better move fast, etc.
Anyway, sorry to ramble. I wish you all good luck.
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