Slash the Price and Buyers will Come – Hot and Heavy!
The real estate statistics came out a couple of weeks ago regarding the large drop in home sales and this just freaked one of my sellers out -“slash the price” they said we need buyers to come and make offers…yes, like hot and heavy! I could not believe my fortunate ears that day. Did I hear the words right? I made sure of it by following up with an email so I would have some record of this conversation in case I was having crazy thoughts about the house. So in RI coastal real estate you never know what will come at you.
Alright this was the second reduction and this was a substantial reduction for this nice property that just was not getting the showings it deserved. If this “slash the price” reduction did not bring buyers then I knew we were facing a tougher real estate market then I had hallucinated about lately. I had marketed it strongly and aggressively, done open houses and sent out mailings all to no avail because ‘the market’ didn’t like the price.
This price reduction was a chance to step up the marketing on the home (the price reduction done on a Thursday evening
We did negotiate back and forth and my sellers agreed on a selling price (I thought they should have countered again but they chose not to). And since it was Friday, I told the agent that I could not cancel the open house since I had sent out so many personal invites to the watermelon & shrimp open house (that was my lure too- sweet & fish combo). She fretted about this point but understood.
So on a hot 94 degree Sunday I had several couples in to the open house (it’s a hot and heavy day, too)and a couple of neighbors came by to meet me and tell me how sweet it was to send the personal invites to them. They wanted my card for later. Hot diggedy- some things actually do work- . Anyway, I got a market analysis out of the open house and a backup offer on the house from another agent. I so like to have >homes sold for my clients!
Again my research data had shown me that there were 22 houses on the market in the town right now within 5% of the price point on my sellers’ home prior to the price reduction. After the price reduction I recommended, only 2 other houses were within 5% of the price of the home. Priced it to move…and the sellers were on board. So a different open house marketing strategy as well as a price reduction to a selling price where there was minimal competition from other homes on the market made this deal become extremely attractive to prospective buyers. Well at least on this one – slash the price and buyers will come…hot and heavy did work!
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