I didn't ask for discounts from cabmaker, granite fabricator, or GC. In fact, when the GC forgot to include the built-in cutting board that I had asked for (he turned out to be very absent-minded), I was willing to pay for it rather than holding him to the amount on the contract. I tried to be fair, because he had the power to screw up my job. He did make some mistakes and get sloppy at the end, anyway, and that was with him happy. Just think if he thought I was screwing him over. It never occurred to me to ask a craftsman to reduce price for no reason. (ao34 -what you do is different, because you are changing the service, not just the price.That's reasonable.) Plus, they all knew I was getting a few quotes, so if they were smart, they weren't padding anything. Appliances, however, I bought at a discount from a local appliance store by telling them what I could get online. The appliance store has sales - they do have a built in margin. It can go the other way, where they ask you to negotiate. That annoys me. Once a vendor did that to me, but it wasn't the kitchen. It was Invisible Fence, you know, the electric dog fence. They were the first ones I talked to, and I told him that. I also told him I had appointments with the other two guys in town. Inv Fence guy closed his presentation with "After you get the other quotes, I hope you'll give me a chance to see if I can meet them." Really? As opposed to, say, giving me your best price right now, since you know I'm getting other quotes? Inv Fence also runs 50% off sales. So if you call only Invisible Fence and you don't have the coupon, you pay twice as much? I hate that. I used Hidden Pet Fence. I guess I'm just not cut out for bargaining, even if I am Italian. I don't like feeling like I could be getting taken if I don't know some arcane secret or play some psychological game or clip some coupon. I love the new JC Penney policy.

I know what you're up against because I have a unique property too. Mine is actually a little horse farm. I would say don't worry about buyers expecting you to go lower on that $499,900 price. When I was shopping, I found a place for $209,900. I found out it had been lowered from $229,900. It needs a lot of work, the owner needs to sell, nothing is selling in the area. So I expected I could get a better deal. I offered $180,000. They wouldn't even respond. I offered $190,000. They still wouldn't respond. I offered $200,000. Finally they answered and they said okay but they made some demands. The point is, I was SURE I was going to get it for a lot lower than it was listed for but I found out you can't assume that every seller is going to drop even if there are reasons to. I loved the house and made the deal anyway. In fact, I would have taken it at her full asking price. Good luck! Here is a link that might be useful: Smith Mountain Lake Horse Property

Yes, the first time I suggested lowering price to my agent -- when we had been on the market a few weeks and had had many showings and a few second showings -- she said I should wait. So I waited several weeks -- it was actually about this time of year -- and then when I did reduce it by then it was well into June and the spring market was starting to cool. What are search brackets in your MLS? If your house was below $475k would that put you into a new search bracket? Every market is different but when we were in the higher bracket we did get lots of showings but no offers. It wasn't just us -- almost everything was selling slowly. Look at sales in your price range/area? Are houses really selling or are there tons more houses on the market than sales? How long is it taking most houses to sell? And can you see a difference in prices for those that sell quickly? In our area, sales were slow and the houses that sold were either priced at what seemed like low prices or were taking 2 years to sell. We didn't want to wait 2 years so we lowered the price.

location and price are the two main drivers. However, certian areas with different stock of houses can have more unique circumstances. Especially true when you're at the higher end of the price spectrium for a particular area. in my town, we had a very tastefully renovated house that was done with high end materials that far exceeded the normal for new or existing construction in the area. However, the layout was a little different, it wasn't bad, just not the open floor plan that seems to be everywhere. they did come down on price from the origonal listing. However it sat for 6-9 months at its last list price and sold for list. It was a situation where the house probably deserved the price, but not every buyer loved the layout, it took finding the right buyer who appreciated the materials and space (and could pay for it) but was looking for a more traditonal layout than the limited new construction in the area. Same thing with larger older homes that need work. in your basic subdivision with your basic normal house, it comes down to location and price. more unique circumstances have some other factors involved on top of the first 2. Yes, more unique things limit the buyer pool and in theory demand. However, the supply and demand curve on real estate is not as elastic as other goods. you don't have to appeal to 75%+ of the population to sell your house, you don't have 100 of them to sell. I guess all I'm saying is that you shouldn't think that a person needs to discount the more unique house enough to get someone who has no need or want for the unique item, or thinks that its a negitive, to buy the house.