As a seller, one of the worst things to experience is the feeling that nobody wants to buy your home. But there are ways to sell your house, whether the market is good or bad. What should you do if your home is on the market and not selling? Is there a perfect time to reduce the price? First, it’s important to have some self-awareness of how you first priced your home. Were you stretching the price above what you knew your home was worth? Or were you pricing your home at a fair market value- or even incredibly low?
If you priced your home high to begin with:
In order to build in some wiggle room for negotiations, you definitely need to jump on a price reduction ASAP. Buyers recognize when a property is priced too high, so what they’re seeing relative to what you’re asking is just not worth it to them.
- How much should you reduce the price by?
It all depends on the conditions of the market, what’s normal for the city or neighborhood that you live in, and your specific situation. For example, where I sell real estate in Seattle a 3% reduction is usually the minimum you need in order to generate new excitement from buyers. This also injects energy into the marketplace about your price reduction and your listing. The goal is to get people who have already seen your home to become re-interested. If you reduce the price by 5%, it will come on the market as a brand-new listing, appearing fresh to buyers and agents everywhere. It also won’t show all of the accumulated days that the listing sat on the market.
If you think you priced your house well to begin with:
If you believe your house was listed at the right price but you still haven’t received any offers, this usually means that you are pretty close, and a sizeable price reduction might not be necessary. A small price correction for a listing in this situation can make a big difference in getting one of those people to come back-or a new person, to see your home for the first time with fresh eyes.
The Bottom Line:
When you’re in this situation as a seller where your home’s not selling and you’re considering a price reduction, you need to understand and evaluate the traffic that you’ve had so far, the feedback people are giving you, and your self-awareness about where did you price to begin with. Usually after 30-60 days a price reduction is well received and is super impactful for you as a seller.
