When a seller names a price your data does not support, you either take it and hope, or you argue them down and risk losing the appointment. The writer took the listing at the seller's number with one condition agreed in advance, and the seller never had to come anywhere near the $315,000 the market data showed.
The Close's price-reduction guide walks through when a reduction is needed, what to try before cutting, and seven strategies for handling it. The first strategy is the one to steal, and it gets agreed to before the sign goes in the yard.
The deal is simple. If the seller is close enough to the right price and wants to test the water at their own number, you agree up front that if the listing gets little to no activity or offers, the price automatically drops to your suggested price after 10 days.
The guide gives one of the writer's own listings as the example, so the numbers below are a first-hand account of a single deal. The seller insisted the home was worth $370,000. The market data said $315,000. They listed at the seller's price. It got showings and no buyers, while houses around it were selling fast and well above list.
"After 10 days, we dropped her price to $330,000 (within my 10% suggested retail) and sold it for $360,000." The seller was shocked. The explanation the writer gave her was about buyer psychology: the higher price scared buyers off, and at the right price point she got competing offers.
The drop was never a concession. It was a scheduled step, set at the listing appointment, which is why nobody had to have the awkward conversation on day 30.
“After 10 days, we dropped her price to $330,000 (within my 10% suggested retail) and sold it for $360,000.”
Today that conversation happens at day 30 or day 45, after the listing has gone stale and the seller has decided the problem is your marketing. Buyers read a late price cut on a tired listing as something being wrong with the house, which is exactly the stigma the same guide names as the biggest downside of reducing.
Scheduling the drop up front turns an argument into a calendar item. The seller gets to test their number, which is what they wanted, and you get a listing priced correctly by day 11 without spending your credibility. Keep the cut inside the 5% to 10% range the guide recommends when your comps say you are in the right ballpark, and do the staging, the new photos, and the rewritten description before the drop date so price is the only variable left.