You and/or your agent did a lot of research and you took your best guess as to where to list your home but you’ve had no showings and it’s been 3 weeks. It’s time to reduce. Any time your home sits with no showings or very few for the market, it’s time to reduce the price.

It means that the buyers looking in your price range are rejecting your home without even seeing it. Sometimes it’s because it compares poorly to other homes in that price range on paper or on the internet. Sometimes it’s because your home is “invisible” to the actual potential buyer because it’s price in a range they are not looking in.

The rule of thumb used to be to always price a home ending in a “9” price point. For example, $99,000 or $249,000. Just as in retail stores, prices ending in a “9” appear cheaper from a psychological standpoint. The internet has changed that to an extent.

The customer who wants a home that might include that home at $249,000 would miss it if they were searching for homes from $250,000 to $275,000. Had that seller been priced at $250,000 it would not only show up in the search but might very well be the least expensive home found. At $249,000 it’s missed entirely.

Now a seller must take into account that most buyers begin their search on the internet and will look in price ranges. If a price reduction won’t take the home into a new search category it’s probably useless. For example, reducing a price from $112,000 to $106,000 won’t capture new lookers, but dropping it from $106,000 to $100,000 probably will.

Even after a home is listed, a seller should think like a potential buyer and from time to time “surf the net” to see how the home stacks up an a variety of searches.

Bottom line? No showings, reduce the price. You can’t negotiate a contract till you get a buyer to write one.