I like to do lower prices on Thursday morning.  

I want agents or the public that have auto-searches set up to have time to see the new price (they get emails from the MLS here in Portland, Oregon, or from me), and when they call me on Thursday or Friday, I can say, "Oh yeah! We are hoping for big results this weekend from this price change...We're pullin' out all the stops!".  

I think sales is 90% mental.  People WANT to have a story told to them.  Not a lie.  Something special about: This car ("Oooohh, it has Corninthian leather..."), this computer ("Hi, I'm a Mac...and I'm a PC"...), or even a house ("Hey, we should go look at this NOW!   It may not make it through the weekend!  They guy said they are expecting BIG results...").

Anyway, that's my take on it.  Who knows?  Maybe I'M 100% mental!  

Phil

I have not had to lower prices very often so don't do it on a regular basis that I have a set day to do it. Last time the seller wanted to lower we had an offer coming in I hadn't yet told them about because I was expecting a low ball offer. I told them, let's hold off lowering until we see this offer. It was a great offer and we were glad we didn't lower it yet.

So you really don't have anything to contribute, eh, Mary....

I'm with Phil. All my new listings, price reductions, etc... go in the MLS and my website Thursday morning for some of the same reasons and logic. I'm a creature of habit and I must be mental too...

Phil, I try to list pretty close at the beginning. I am real familiar with my small market. We typically list about 5k higher than expected selling  price. Mr Phil is getting an attitude,lol.

Mary, as long as you don't have much to do to sell a house, how about making dinner for the group. I noticed Todd was invited but how about the rest of us.

BTW, I'm with Phil for Thursday, best timing for the auto notifications no matter whether the market is good, bad or in between.

I'm going with Thursday also - agents plan on Friday what the are going to show Saturday & Sunday

Oddly, Thursdays are always better here to run reductions as well.

I don't know if there is a correlation but Thursdays also have high spikes in visitor traffic prioir to the automailers going out.

Could that imply that there is some expectation that Thursady has become some unspoken discount day?

Howard, I think Todd invited himself, oops did I say that outloud? Sounding like Thursday is sale day.

What can I say, Mary?  I'm mental!  

IMHO, it takes guts to ask these questions in public.   I felt Jody was baring it all, and looking for suggestions, and you kinda gave the non-suggestion, Mary, puffing yourself in the process.

I have a special super-power where I can read something non-existent right into any thread!  Ask around.  I'm well known for it.  And, I plead guilty as charged, Mary!  I'll try to behave....but no promises!

Phil,

Do I need to cover my eyes then? Is this an "R" rated thread now? Is my wife going to get angry with me for seeing Jody baring all?

Am I reading something into this?

And I can remove all doubt for you on the "mental". Your a real estate agent and you do it willingly. Therefore, I think that should remove any doubt. :P

ROFL, Scott!  Thank you!

Phil,

Your welcome! I do, on a rare occassion have moments of lucidity and this must have been one of them.

Please remember that I too am a real estate agent and I do it willingly. But I have my medication. :P

As far as what day to lower the price goes, which I never did address. If a seller gives me an amount to lower a price I never lower it completely in one day. I will lower it over a period of time everyday in increments...PRICE MARGIN MARKETING. :)

It seems to work to. So the best day is....EVERYDAY! :)

Dr.Phil, I didn't mean to sound like I was puffing. Actually, I have never thought of there being a good "time" to reduce price as far as a day of the week. Sorry, if I sounded like I don't have problems in real estate because I certainly do. Sorry sorry sorry. I just should have said nothing, hard to do, I'm female. :)

Great input, Scott!

No worries, Mary.  Believe me, "It's me, not you"!!!!

Have a wonderful weekend, Mary.

Your buddy,

Phil

I am a Friday price reduction person ... Friday morning that is ... so that agents can still include the listing for their weekend showings. And since I do it on Fridays, the price change flag in the MLS stays there well into the following week so that I can take advantage of two weekends rather than just one.

I think the answer to this question is best answered by your ultra-stats.

Over the past 2 years I have noticed increased traffic or the most traffic on Monday through Wednesday. So I believe Monday to be the best day. I would think those of us who have clients we are showing homes to over the weekend do our best to schedule as many of them in advance rather than just hours before, so if i print out my MLS sheets on Wednesday of my top few, and do a quick check of any new properties on Friday night, I would believe we are covered.

Your suggestions of Thursday's means I have to check to make sure the refrigerator and washer and dryer are included on on the MLS info for Saturday morning.

My answer is, look at your web traffic in your area. But I would think the real answer is....Price it right from the beginning. Don't do a 30 day trial or 30 day review. It falsely invigorates the seller and makes you look bad, not to mention you just lost the most important day............The first one!

Brady, most agents around here (Northern Illinois) usually schedule showings one day ahead or on the day of the showing. I hardly ever get showing requests on my listings more in advance. So Thursday night / Friday morning is just the perfect time for the changes to take place in the MLS. I am mainly counting on the showing traffic from other coop agents and their clients who are on autosearches ... Ultra-stats show general traffic to my website and my listings online but don't have much to do with agent showings.

Michaela,

  I schedule at least 24 hours in advance. If driving by a listing with a client who wants to see that property I pull it up on my computer then and there, and only proceed if vacant. I hate to put a selling agents clients on the spot, but it has happened, yet I do what ever I can to avoid it.

Even with scheduling the day before I usually print out my sheets the day before that, and prefer to schedule as much in advane as possible as I try to get my clients excited about the the listings they will be seeing.

I am not saying Thursday is wrong, I just wanted to point out that via web traffic, many clients search the websites earlier in the week. So if I have 4 or 5 days more of exposure due to a reduced price, then all the better. I have even had this discussion with my PPC managers who are paid to follow the traffic and make a living doing it. To me, those clients that start searching towards the end of the week are just wanting to look. Those that search all week long need to find the perfect home sooner.

We can over-endulge this forever, and I think we can all agree on that, which is why I said its best to price appropriately from the beginning. I am not saying  I am perfect and everyone else is wrong, I think each market is different. I just personally believe the sooner the better.

Brady,

Love your suggestion of utilizing ultrastats to help determine marketing strategy.  That helps take the 'guess work' out of the equation and makes it a sound business decision.  (Explaining your reasoning to the customer goes a long way toward increasing your credibility too!)

Tim

I try to update MLS and print sheets of property that I plan on showing on that day but that does not always happen. Sometimes the status of the listing changes not just the price but that is and entire other topic.

As soon as a seller decides to lower a price I do it that day. The sooner the better for me. I agree about having it lower over the weekends for showings. Not many offices in my area are even open on Sundays so if there is a price change it is great to have it over the weekend. Otherwise if an agent around here waited till a certain day they could loose potential interested buyers that may look at it at the lowered price. I like the idea of checking on the ultrastats, good tip!

Brady, great suggestion on Ultra Stats!

However, your "price it right from the start" suggestion reminds me of Will Rogers', "If the stock don't go up, don't buy it".

I'm a BIG believer in pricing accurately at the start, not over-pricing in anticipation of a lower bid.  My clients that trust me on this tactic, find their houses sell quickly, less stress for them and for their Realtor!

Of course we want to price it right from the beginning, and perhaps it is different where you live/work, but in some areas I handle, often there's no "Right Price".  E.g.; 100 year old Dutch Colonial home, unlike any other in size, lot, amenities, quality, etc., not one sale on the street for 2 years... The suggested CMA range could be $70,000 either way.  

Others that tend to take longer are GREAT houses with bad neighbors (The Munsters live on one side, and the Adams Family on the other....Lurch, get the door, please....)   Discounting a listed home based on neighbors' cars parked in the yard, dilapidated roofs, and/or 3-foot tall grass is quite subjective.

We do our best at finding comparable sales and use other appraisal techniques, but sometimes (rarely, thankfully) the house just doesn't move.  And in my area, if it's under $850,000, you have marketed it even reasonably well, and don't have an offer in 2 months, it's more than likely the price.

Thank you again for the Ultra Stat comment.  I'm going to check that out!

I've always had luck with activating my listings AND doing price reductions on Thursdays.  All of the MLS feeds that are not updated immediately update overnight......and the buyers then go to work on Friday, spend numerous hours wasting their employers time searching for new homes in their price range.  If my reduction, or my new listing, suddenly shows up in their new results, it appears to them to be a fresh listing!!

I'm with the Thursday crowd, here all newspaper specials are running Thursday through Sunday.   Good Luck

I guess I should take back what I said before ... about being a "Friday-price-reduction-person" ... not even realizing what day it was yesterday, I got two sellers asking me to lower their prices as of today, and so I did ... and now I belong to the Tursday crowd!

We usually do Monday or Tuesday. This way we can schedule the open house in our MLS and when the price reduction email goes out they also see that there is an open house on Sunday. Plus it takes 24-48 hours for it to go through the automated system for Realtor.com and Boston.com where a lot of people see it as well.