I'll be second. Just remember to list WHERE the house is - that makes such a big difference!

SE Michigan, just north of Detroit:
Original list: $165,000 March 1 2006
First reduction: $160,000
Second reduction: $158,000
Third reduction: $154,900
Fourth Reduction: $149,900
Fifth reduction: #144,500
Signed a rent-to-own agreement on August 1, 2007 with a price at $139,000 to be closed in November 2009. Meanwhile, they rent at $1200/mo with $200 going toward the downpayment. $5700 is already in escrow for a down-payment. The realtor is discounting his commission by $2000, an offer he made to get the deal to happen.

where and when :-)

Sorry, forgot to include the "where and when"!

We sold our 3-year-old house in October 06 in the Chicago exurbs. It was a nice neighborhood and a beautiful house, but we were very far away from jobs, grocery stores, restaurants, etc (I won't ever again choose a big new house over a close-in location!). We were also competing against the builder, as well as numerous re-sales in our neighborhood.

Identical houses in our neighborhood were selling for between $320,000 and $330,000 just a few months before we listed, but then sales came to a screeching halt, and the only people who sold were the ones who went below $300,000 (we were one of the first to do that). Since then, the market in that neighborhood seems to have leveled out, maybe even gone up a bit. But, we didn't want to wait, and we were just happy to sell :-).

Location: Gilbert, AZ
List Date: September 22, 2007
Original List Price: 258,500
Final Sale Price: $250,000
Days on Market: 36 hours
Close: Scheduled Thurs
Mood: Very thankful.

All the inspections are done, appraisal done, final walk-through was today. The bank said all is well and on schedule so I just won't be sleeping for the next 3 nights worrying that something can go awry.

Thankful doesn't even BEGIN to cover how I feel about this sale....Miracle is more like it in this market.

Now it's IDAHO or bust:-)

Location: Hoboken, NJ
Original List Price: $1,595,000
Sales Price: $1,525,000 As Is - no credits/ repairs for HI items.
DOM: 30
Second offer: $1,550,000. We stuck with the first offer.
Closed: October 1 2007.

Very happy.

Issaquah, WA(outside Seattle)
OLP: 565
NLP: 550
DOM: 40ish(don't remember exactly)
Sold:545
Closed July 9, 2007

We bought 4 years earlier for 350 so we feel good about it.

Tucson, AZ

Original list price: $419k listed on Feb. 7, 2007
First price drop: $400k in April
Second price drop: $399,900 in May with $5k towards closing
Third price drop: $385k in June (no incentives)
Fourth price drop: $375k with new carpet in early August
Current offer: $368k with about $2300 in closing and repairs (it's VA so we have to pay for title insurance)
Scheduled to close: October 30th
DOM: I stopped counting a while ago
Stress level: Unhealthy
Additional $$ spent on carrying costs: $8500
Relief: In sight - will feel better once paperwork is signed and money transfered!

We bought the house in 2000 for $195k and probably spent at least $100k in renovations (that's in addition to all our blood and sweat as we did a majority of the renovations ourselves).

We will have a little bit left over after everything is said and done so at least we're not upside down.

Suburb of OKC, Oklahoma

List price $199,900 (No price reductions. We listed a good 10k LESS than what everyone, including other realtors in my office, told me we should list for...even had realtors questioning me WHY I was selling so low.)

DOM: 8

From contract to close: 22 days

Sale price: $197,000

Date: June 2007

Being in real estate, I know all too well it's all about the price. I realistically could have listed 10-15k higher, but I would have sat on the market for a while. We needed to sell the first day (and did, though we finalized the contract a few days after) and be out within weeks.

I priced my house at what I thought would create a feeding frenzy. We had multiple offers. It's all about the price.

Location: Southeast Michigan, Suburb of Detroit
FSBO: July 06 $254,900
FSBO Price reduction: Nov 06 $239,900
Listed with agent: Jan.07 $239,900
1st price reduction: Feb 07 $224,900
Re-list new agent: May 07 $224,900
Recieved offer first week of new agent's listing
Sold: June 07 $217,500

In the beginning of this process, price reflected what comparable homes on street sold for in the 5 months prior to putting ours on the market. It took us a while to accept the reality of the current market and get over the tax appraiser's values. After all, if we're paying taxes on a value of $250,000 thats what I want out of it!! Lesson learned . We also had to wait for just the right buyer to come along as we had an incurable defect of location (previous posts).

Puyallup WA (by Tacoma)

Original list $349,900 10-06 FSBO
First offer $330,000 1-07
offer fell through 2-07
Sign up with agent March
First reduction $345,000 April
second reduction $339,000 May
added $2000 in landscaping June
new agent July
$330,000
second offer $307,000 deals falls through 2 weeks later
new agent list $310,000
last offer $305,000 with $3000 for closing costs set to close October 29

DOM 1 year almost to the day.

Our buyers almost walked when we countered their offer by just a few thousand because we were iffy on them renting before closing and then changing their mind after the two previous deals fell through. Then we made our agent call and say we would agree to what they originally offered. We bought 3 years ago for $275,000. WE feel lucky to have came out ahead. A neighbor of ours bought a year after us and sold at the same time we did and owe $15,000. Ouch!

what a difference 1- 1 1/2 years makes..
spring 2005---realtor says list at 800k
We say, no, lets list at 839k
1 day later--1st offer 830k
before we decide on offer, another comes in at 835k
2 days after listing, we call for best and final and sell for 854k...
Likely the home sells for mid 700's now
But we had to buy, so with the market downturn, we also have a new home worth less then what we paid, likley by 15%+-
Oh well, it isn't worth anything unless you are selling, and the check is cashed :)

Montgomery, AL

Original List: $335,000 May 5, 2006
First Reduction: $324,900 Sept. 2006
Listed with new agent Oct, 2006 reduced to $314,500
FSBO on Jan, 2007 $310,000
Reduced March 2007 to $299,000
Sold April 2007 for $304,000.
Buyer wanted us to pay all closing costs, so they adjusted the price. They bought with 100% loan.

11 months on the market - closed almost to the day that we listed the year before.

Original listing price was actually in the middle of comps at the time. And the comp prices really never went down through out the listing - my patience did - so we made a calculated decision to drop below the magic $300K.

House probably would only sell for $275,00 or less today, as two other similar sized houses on the market one two doors down from me right on the interstate and one five doors up - both sold for about 10K less than my house a month after I did. Interestingly we got the tax assessment the other day and it is assessed at $314,000. =8-o I forwarded it on to the new owners, what the heck it might bring them some comfort.

MP

Interesting...

I dropped qdognj 'cause the sale is 18 months old.

After rounding to make my math easier, I come up with an average sale to list price of 91.3%. We've got the country pretty well covered except for New England.

States so far: Michigan, Washington, Arizona, Alabama, Illinois, New Jersey, & Oklahoma.

I didn't know MP's closing costs or the adjustment to the sales price so I just guessed at $2K. I rounded half up & half down to the nearest thousand. I'm not a math whizz but I think I'm close.

Will keeping this thread going give us any idea of what prices are doing or not?? I'm wondering if we could use it to guage anything meaningful? Assuming everybody thought they'd started with a comp supported price...seems like a 9% reduction, so far?

/tricia (who's a banker so likes statistics)

Location: Central WA
Original List Price: $215,000
Sold Price: $208,000
DOM: 7 days

We FSBO'd our house and went for a quick sale. Took the first offer we recieved and the house closed 2 weeks ago.

We just bought another house in CO and paid $5000 under asking price after the original asking price was lowered several times. The buyer has to bring money to the table and couldn't afford to go any lower. This house was on the market for 200 days which makes us feel even better about our quick sale on our original house.

Houses in CO are selling but houses we looked at were selling for well under their original asking price. Several newer homes we looked at (built in 2000) were selling for under their original purchase price.

Great thread
Flagler Beach, FL-Vacation House, 1 block in from ocean
Sold: 09/12/07
Days on Market: 120
Listed: $650,000
Sold: $575,000+ $5,000 for furniture under the table
My only offer, had about 8 showings.
I have never sold a house before. Reading this forum really helped me remove my rose colored glasses.
Thanks

Louisville KY
if sold date is that date we got a signed contract, then, 10/15/2007 if it closing then next month
DOM 45 (I think)
Listed: $133,500
Sold: $128,000
Our only offer, had 4 or 5 showings
I have never sold a house before either. Reading this forum helped me to have the proper attitude, and helped our home sell more quickly as our showings were very well received.

Location: Central coast, CA

Original list price: $494,500, June 14, 2006
Reduced price: $485,000, August, 2006
Sold: $478,000 + we paid $10,000 in closing costs.
We accepted an offer September 2006.

DOM: approximately 3 months

Very thankful: We had already relocated to Oregon and we were paying monthly expenses on two houses and sales of homes in our small town was slowing. We accepted the first reasonable offer.

Location: SE Wisconsin
List date: March 2007
List price: 179,900
Sold price: 179,900, no closing costs or other incentives
Days on market: 3

We were very lucky. The house we bought in the same area was very different:
List date: July 2006
List price: 274,900
Sale price: 248,500
Time on market: 9 months

Location: Iowa
List date: July, 2007
List price with Realtor: 299,000
Only had 6-8 showings and one open house
Time on Market with Realtor: 90 days
List price FSBO: 279,000 (deducted realtor's commission from original price).
DOM: 7 days on market (spent less than $50 in advertising and materials)
Accepted offer to first couple viewing home: 272,000 guaranteed cash offer to close in six weeks or less

We are THRILLED! Love the new owners and are so happy that they are the ones to purchase our house.

My husband and I sold two houses this year...talk about STRESS!

Both houses are in Eastern Iowa.

House #1
List date: September '06
List price: $105,000; dropped once to $99,000
Had LOTS of showings with first realtor, but she never brought one offer.
Reduced price: $94,500 with second realtor, who brought offer in three weeks after getting the listing
Sale price: $95,000 (minus $3k given in closing costs)
Closed: February '07

House #2
List date: early April '07
List price: $89,000
Had one failed offer
TONS of showings and open houses
Reduced price: $87,000 after a month on market; then $85,000 a month later
Sale price: $80,500 (minus $2k in closing costs)
Closed: July '07

House #3 (our current house)
List price: $189,000
Reduced to: $184,000
Reduced to: $179,900
We bought it for $172,400
It went on the market in January. We made our offer in April and closed in late June.

Location: Phoenix, AZ (historically desireable neighborhood)
List Date: Feb 2, 2007
Original List Price: 474,000
4 Price Drops: 450, 435, 425, 400
Final Sale Price: $400,000
Days on Market: 5.5 months on MLS, then off for a month and received a call after somone was looking through cancelled listings.
Close: Oct 25
Total Offers, contracts over the last 8 months: 5 Offers, 3 Buyers, 3 Contracts (Third time's the charm?? I hope!)
Mood: Excited, Thankful, yet Worried

North Port , FL 1900 sq, ft.
3.2.5 2 Custom Pool Home Sold 08/06 $298000
Sold today REO $148000. HSBC Bank.

Location: Deptford, NJ
April/May 2007 - had a buyer before the house was even listed, agent took pictures and next day had buyer.
Original List price - 172.5K
Buyers offer - 165000, countered to 167.5K
Buyer backs out cause she didnt want to mow 1/5 of an acre,
Official listing date: 4/26/07
Accepted offer less than one week later sales price 170K which includes 5K for closing costs.

This is kind of outdated, because it seems that the market has become even worse since we sold, but I learned a lot through this process:

Chicago, nice southwest suburb:
Listed with flat fee MLS in October 2006 at $485,000
Rejected $440,000 offer November 2006
Reduced to $479,000 in late November 2006
Rejected offer for $455,000 in late November 2006
Reduced to $475,000 in January 2007
After calling back Realtor with earlier offer as well as contacting buy-owner lookers who told us to keep them updated with our new price, we received two offers for $465,000 in January 2007, one with a Realtor and one without. Obviously, we took the buy-owner offer.

Now, we're worried about getting back the money we spent on our new penthouse condo, whenever we choose to sell.

Good luck, everyone.

Location: Northern Virginia (Fairfax County)
Original list date: April, 2006
Original list price: $935,000
Price drops during 6 month (NEVER AGAIN) listing: $899K, $868K, $849K, $829K
Days on Market: 180 with no written offers

Listing expired Oct 2006 and we took the house off the market for two months and did EVERY SINGLE THING suggested by our new Realtor. Relisted Jan 13, 2007 for $829K, SOLD in two weeks (with a 14 day close) for $825K with 25K in closing costs/concessions. We bought the house in 1996 for $382K, so while it was hard to realize the market had turned at what seemed like the MOMENT we listed, we did not lose money, and for that I am so thankful. My h and I have said so many times that selling that house was the hardest thing we've ever gone though (yes, we've been lucky).

SO HAPPY that we sold when we did.

GOOD LUCK to all the sellers out there!!!

Location: Owings Mills, MD
List Date: July 8, 2007
Original List Price: $269,000
1 Price Drop: $262,000 after 38 DOM & 15 showings without offers. Feedback was positive but no takers.
Final Sale Price: $259,000 with 28th showing.
Days on Market: Officially 72, however was really around 65 days.
Close: Oct 19

Other: Received one offer the week before from a young couple who needed closing help. We countered but they declined due to pressure from their parents to wait until Spring. Our net would have been $2000 less so I am thankful that it didn't work out. DH and I went into this anticipating $260,000 as our net. Interviewed 6 agents with listing recommendations b/t $244,000 and $272,000. Loved the agent we chose - has been in the business for a long time so she has seen the cycles. OH every other week and tons of pics on the web - made a huge difference! Buyers were very reasonable - we countered their offer & they accepteds; never saw the HI as they didn't request any repairs.

Mood: Elated and relieved as our market took a major dive right after we went under contract. Houses are now listing about $10-20,000 less.

Good luck to sellers & buyers!