I am not a real estate pro - I have bought and sold homes several times. . .I listed my house a little over a day ago and I'm getting a good deal of action - but one feedback from a showing said the price was too high and they would make an offer only if the listing price was lowered . . .
WTF? Are they asking me to counter MYSELF? Isn't the usual protocol to make an offer somewhere below your max comfort level and see how the seller reacts/counter offers?
And why would I adjust the price just a little more than a day after listing? Especially with multiple showing requests scheduled. It may be the list is too high, but isn't that what the market is for? Offer and counter offer? I'm obvious not gonna make a change less than two days in, and my agent agrees - but I'm curious if this is a "thing" now. Or not?
Now is an ugly time to be in the housing market, buying or selling.
Houses are appraised and financed based on the full weight of comp valuations but purchased based on monthly payments. The comps a home is priced on attracted different buyers than those shopping today.
Take for example a $500K house: Some friends of mine bought last summer and purchased with a 2.8% interest rate, at that rate the payment would be $2300 (10% down w/PMI). Today's average rate is 6.9%, the same $500K mortgage would be $3434 per month. So your buyer for a $500K house last summer would have been comparing it to a slightly luxury 3 bedroom apartment in most major cities, today, they are comparing it to a luxury penthouse.
Most people who are looking at your house are saying that because they cannot afford your house, and while I understand the reaction to that is to say "that isn't my problem", it is in fact your problem. A year ago, they could afford your house, six months ago they could probably afford your house. Today it costs 75% more per month than it did 9 months ago, and home buyers budget monthly.
I don't know where you are located, but if you want to get a good idea of where your house needs to be price wise, you should start by looking at new home sellers and see where they are pricing houses and decide if you want to undercut them, because if you don't you should plan on owning your house another 5 years.
In Las Vegas, new home builders are discounting houses by $100K on $700K homes. I have seen some that were being discounted by nearly 20% from where the were priced 6 months ago. Example: $158K price cut
https://www.realtor.com/realestatea...-Landings-Ave_Las-Vegas_NV_89166_M95915-99294 or $143K price cut
https://www.realtor.com/realestatea...lver-Comet-Ct_Las-Vegas_NV_89178_M97980-58000
Is your market as overvalued as Las Vegas? I don't know, but historically Las Vegas is the canary in the coal mine. We are seeing data from other cities follow Las Vegas' trajectory (Austin, TX wasn't far behind and Atlanta seems to be a few months delayed).
I know its annoying to be told that your stuff is worth less than you think it is, but there is a real possibility that your house is priced based on the market 3 months ago, overpriced for the market yesterday and will not be worth as much as it was yesterday for the next 5 years.
One last note: after the last 2 years the "usual protocol" is broken. Home buyers are very hesitant to make aggressive offers below asking price even if that is the only way they are interested, and real estate agents are not incentivized to press them too. In fact, I was speaking to a real estate agent the other day who has never had an offer under asking price accepted (she admitted she had only written offers under twice in her 4 years as a buyers agent), and she told me if I was looking to "low ball" buyers I would not be able to find someone to work with me (I am ok with that, I would rather not buy than overpay), but this was one of the leading agents in her brokerage the last 2 years.