That's great you're getting showings & hopefully an offer!

If I've said it once, I've said it a dozen times on the Forum. The market is very efficient. I'm glad you've found a price point that has got things moving. Hopefully, that offer will be in your hands soon.

If a house is priced right it will sell no matter what type of market conditions.

Wishing you fair winds & safe harbor.

/tricia

Glad to hear you are being pragmatic regarding pricing in your area. I hope it results in a a quick sale!

Good that you are recognizing your market conditions and doing what is necessary to sell. On a side note...10k is not a big reduction unless your price is in low-mid 100's so do not lose sleep over it :)

Good luck! We did the same thing in a declining market in SoCal last fall and don't regret it. Only wish we'd listed sooner! We sold while so many of the houses didn't - some still for sale a year later ...

Being ahead of the market, while it stings to think that you're "losing money," is the best place to be if you want to sell quickly.

Kudos to you! Your a faster learner than we were, but things are looking up and are closing at the end of the month, knock on wood. I wish we would have been this smart a year ago.; )

Congratulations! I'll keep my fingers crossed!

I wished we had listed lower when we first went on the market in February. As they say hind-sight is 20/20. At the time, everything pointed to our price as being appropriate.

But it's definitely all about the price. We're looking to close on the 30th (I'm knocking on wood as well ojoy119) so hopefully we can put this whole thing behind us! I can hardly wait to not pay on two mortgages!

Would you mind stating what your original price was? My house has now been on the market three weeks with some good open house activity but only two showings. I will probably reduce the price soon but I'd really like a sense of how much to reduce it by.

Smartest thing you can do is not chase the market down. It took me awhile (I was listening to my real estate agents) - but when I made the decision to drop to a price that would move the property (against the advice of my agent) - I got a lot of interest and it sold at full asking price. And it was a difficult property to sell as it backed up to an interstate off ramp.

My philosophy is in tune with the members of this board. It's not what "you" think your property is worth - it's not even recent sales in this market - it's what will get people looking at your house. Time and again I can tell you that a property priced right is a property that will sell. This recent mortgage mess we have is because brokers and lenders were making overpriced houses affordable by lowering monthly mortgage payments - we see how well that is working out.

Make your house affordable for the consumer who is most likely to live in your neighborhood and buyers will come.

MP

Marita40,

Please make a new post for your question so we don't distract from canobean's post & also so everybody reading can see your question. There may be others from Minnesota wondering about the market in that area.

Many thanks.

/t

I did the same thing 15 months ago. I told my listing agent back then that I will probably kick myself if I let this (low) cash offer fall through. A competing local realtor at the time of the sale stated that I sold too low by $30K. I checked out my neighborhod a year later and many of the same homes in and around my neighborhood were still for sale at about 5% less than a year earlier.

I immediately invested the proceeds netted from the sale of my house and have gotten back $40K so far not including $7,000 that I saved in local city taxes. So as one investment lost value, another market made up the difference.

newjerseybt, Thanks for pointing out that freeing up your equity to invest elsewhere can make up for the fact that you don't get the price you may have hoped for.

I dropped from $169000 to $159,900. Not a huge drop but more than 5%. My previous agent liked to drop in increments of a few thousand. I don't think that was serving me well at all.

Second showing this evening, I'm guessing to the folks who are thinking of putting in an offer. C'mon buyers, you know you want to!

To many sellers try to 'hold out' without considering carrying costs.
If you have a mortgage you are paying interest every month.
This is sunk money. You get a fraction back from Uncle Sam, but mostly you are loosing.

I purchase and rebuild/update older housing.
Not 'flipping', but real work. Plumbing, electrical, etc.

I get caught once in a while with things that are unanticipated.
Usually I have to hold on till prices recover, but I have sold at very small profit to free up capital.
When you have 50% down it can becomes a problem to keep the cash flow moving and meet obligations (like keeping the good subs happy).

canobeans - your realtor sounds like mine. She said that a small drop means diddely squat, that you have to make one that will cause realtors and buyers to notice.

We're dropping 11K after our Agent's open on Wed. We're hoping the AO will garner some interest in getting realtors to show the home once they see it.

WOW ! I coulda had a V8

Great thoughts!

canobeans, thanks for answering my question. This is very helpful information. (Triciae, I was certainly not trying to "distract" from canobeans OP. My question was totally relevant to the thread, at least in my opinion. Let's be careful not to second guess each others' motives!)

marita40,

I apologize for ruffling your feathers. But, this statement of yours is not relevant to anything canobeans has found succesful without knowing exactly what your location is, type of property, market conditions, etc. compared to yours which does pull the thread off topic.

"I will probably reduce the price soon but I'd really like a sense of how much to reduce it by."

Reducing your price by a percentage that somebody else has found successful in an area that you don't even know is just silly.

Yes, I'm crabby this morning. My back hurts!

But, I do hope any price drop you may decide based on irrelevant information does help you sell because that is the goal of this Forum.

/tricia

catfight? Meow!!!!!! lol

Every area is different as is every price range - a 5% drop in one market in a certain price range may have more impact than others.

We dropped our prices based on search engine criteria (this was in addition to checking on the sold comps for our area). We started at $419k in Feb. and our first drop was to $400k after two months on the market with no offers (lots of activity through the house though). We dropped to $400k because most search engines over $400k go from $25k increments to $50k increments. We were hoping to capture the "up to" $400k crowd. But still no offers. We then tried adding a $5k closing cost incentive and dropped to $399,900 (realtors' advice). Still nothing. Then in June, we dropped to $385k and got our first offer. Fell through. August we dropped to $375k and put in new carpet - we got our second offer. Also fell through. We changed REAs and kept our $375k. Third buyer came through in late September and we're looking to close on the 30th.

It really is all about the price and what buyers are willing to pay in your area for your house. Some areas aren't as hard hit as others so we shouldn't generalize.

I have an offer, will post in a separate thread.

Most of the time it is about the price. One exception: When there are no buyers.
It doesn't matter what you do with the price at that point.
Winter months tend to dry up buyers (in the cold climate zones). It's been proven that you get less for your house in the winter months because the buyers are non-existent.

However, if you see that homes around you are getting offers and you're not (means the buyers ARE out there), your price is too high.

debunch,

I disagree a tad. Even if buyers seem to be non-existent if a property is priced right it will sell.

At some price point, a buyer will emerge. There's always some buyers. The only real question is what will motivate them to purchase? That's usually price.

/tricia

I think I need to change my screen name from Disneyrsh to Yupitsthepricestupid.

Good for you, pricing right and getting it sold!