We listed at $299,900 and had only one showing the first week. By the second week we began to get concerned and lowered it to $294,900. After another two weeks with no showings we lowered it to $284,900, increased the buyers agent cut, and sold it immediately.

This was in an extremely tough South Florida market (88 homes for sale per buyer, seven for sale on my tiny street alone) and we were totally motivated and wanted *only* to get the heck out. We had only paid $80K for it in 1991, so did ok regardless of how much we lowered the price. We still feel very fortunate to have sold at all- all the neighbor houses are still sitting there at their inflated prices. This is fine if you are comfortable waiting a year to sell, but we just wanted to leave.

Interesting and helpful for the rest of us. How may I ask can you increase the buyers agents cut exactly? I mean if the commission is set at say 6% each gets 3. Do you mean you made it clear that the buyers agent would get more buy your agent would get the same? How did you go about that? I could see where that would get more agents bringing people but seems unfair to you listing agent. Sorry off topic.

We started with listing agent at 2% and buyers at 3%, and increased it to 3.5% just by mentioning it to our agent.
No, it doesn't seem fair since my guy did all the work. But I realized I needed more lookers and this is how I got them. Some agents have so many homes to choose from to show people, and this caught their attention. Money talks.

one word about lowering the price: NO.

one word about lowering the price: NO.

So what are you saying? That sellers shouldn't lower their price regardless of market conditions?

If you lower the price because you were too high, then you'll get a real buyer.
However, If you lower your price below comps you'll CREATE a buyer for the steal. In other words the created buyer was not in the market to buy, but couldn't pass up a deal of the Century.

Unfortunately, it may be toughter to sell right now. Too much inflation going on. The gas prices scare people & they stay put.

Anyone else out there? I am curious, since we are talking about lowering the price on our house. We are still getting a fair amount of showings for the amount of inventory, but we want out. It's been two months.

The answer is YES. At some price point, everything sells.

You've not provided enough data to generate any more specific responses.

Tricia

We lowered our price twice and both times it increased traffic. After the first price drop traffic picked up for about a week (including some second visits from folks that looked when we first came on). After the second price drop we knew we'd hit the "magic number" because interest was at a level that was at or even greater than when we first went on the market--I'm talking 4 to 5 showings per day even on weekdays. In less than a week we had multiple offers and one was for full asking. We close in June.

I think, had we been willing to wait it out, we maybe could've gotten a little more money for our house. For us though, we didn't want to wait any longer. I should also add that we thought it was a good idea to lower the price once interest slowed down, but we were still getting showings. We figured if we waited until interest had wained all together, the price drop might not have as much of an impact.

Take a look at what home selling professionals are doing. BUILDERS are lowering prices at least 10% and/or giving other incentives.

A story in today's Chicago Tribune HOME section quotes a suburban realtor who says houses sell when priced at 5% less than they would have brought in 2006. The story also cites the ever-increasing supply of homes for sale.

In our price range there are 63 houses for sale in a 6 mile radius. Of those, only 1 house has gone under contract in the 2 months we have been on the market

At that rate of sales it will take years for all 63 homes, including yours, to sell. It sounds to me like buyers are not willing to pay what sellers are asking. With so much competition you really need to set your home apart from the pack. The best way to do that is to lower the price.

Yes, it did for us. Dropped the price and sold shortly thereafter. We were just flat our overpriced originally, thought that at the time. Interestingly enough most of the comps in our neighborhood are now coming on the market at even below our sale price.

I think the price break has to be pretty significant to work though. I mean, $5-$10,000 wouldn't budge me -- $30-40,000 might. I'm either in love with a house or not, and it's only when a house drops down into another price bracket (where it's clearly better than the competition) that it becomes interesting enough 'as a bargain' to perhaps extract a nibble of interest.

IMO, the better strategy is to do what it takes to make the home look its best, to maximize market exposure, and then to negotiate flexibly. If someone's not in love with your house, the smallest setback can kill the deal. It's finding the person who loves your home that makes the deal stick.

I lowered the price 3% and raised the commission from 3% to 4%. I went from 3 showings a month to 6 a week. When I dropped the price 12% from the Original Listing Price I started getting 1 offer a week and got up to 3 showings a day until the house finally sold at over 300 DOM.

My former neighbor's house in Clifton,(NE)NJ is getting a lot more interest as they have lowered their price by 18% from their OLP but they are about 740 DOM. Started at $629,000, now at $515,000.

Homes in the North East and North Jersey are starting to move again but only after a large price drop as reported by the NAR this last week.

I live in South Florida where the market is really bad. My house has been on the market for five months and I havn't had one showing in the last two. I had three contracts on it the first month, all fell through because the people couldn't get financing. I'm now being told by my realtor that I need to drop my price $15,000.00 to sell. (The property is listed now for $169,900.) I lowered the price $5000.00 three weeks ago and still no lookers so I'm really not looking forward to lowering it again. Any comments?

Perhaps you want to make a new post, posting the link to your realtor.com page. Someone may notice something that you can do to get traffic.

There was a post recently where the house never made it to realtor.com, almost like an exclusive listing on the listing agents site. Something like that would hinder a sale if you're getting out of state lookers.

We listed our house in early April and had a ton of showings right off the bat and one offer which fell through. We dropped the price by $1500 a month later and got more showings again including two couples who came back a second time and spent over an hour at our house, but no offers. We are now dropping the price another $2500. In fact, it will now be priced under another house on our block that is half the size of ours! We are in a low-end market (under $90k). We're also offering to pay up to $3,000 in closing costs. I don't know why it's not selling other than it is a small house and it's on a busy street. The market is very slow in our town in eastern Iowa. Some houses in our town have been sitting for a year or more. I have faith it will sell...it's just a matter of finding the right buyer.

I hit 30 days tomorrow with 2 showings and 2 attendees at an Open house. No offers. Comments from realtors - shows well. Buyers, too small, concerned about the curve.
Open house the 10th.
My house is listed at 295,000. I have discussed a price reduction with my realtor and she thinks we should go directly to 285,000. I am going to agree because that's as low as I'm going to go so I might as well just go there. I have lined up appts with two property managers and will try to rent if it doesn't sell in 90 days (or less a rentor shows up and I can convince my realtor to let me out of the contract.)
The market has not picked up here, tons of new construction glutting the market as well as a huge inventory of existing houses owned by people no doubt wishing they could sell so they could buy one of the new homes:) I don't hold out much hope and I will already be losing money, unless I can't find a rentor (which might be a problem too). (FYI, house is less than 2 yrs old in Nebraska so there's not been any appreciation)

I have a question about timing: once you've determined to lower the price - should it be immediately before during or after ???? an Open house? when the real estate booklets come out? or doesn't it matter?

I have lined up appts with two property managers and will try to rent if it doesn't sell in 90 days (or less a rentor shows up and I can convince my realtor to let me out of the contract.)

If you decided to pull your house off the market in order to rent it you don't need to worry about your Realtor letting you out of the contract. Those concerns only apply to people who want to list with another agent or go FSBO. If you are going to drop the price I would do it before the open house.