"Asking Price is Negotiable"

Memo to Sellers

Lots of Sellers, in lieu of reducing a too-high asking price, are instead directing their agents to tell prospective Buyers that "the [asking] price is negotiable."

Here's a news flash: they already know.

In the vast majority of these cases, the issue isn't that no offers are coming in -- low, high, or otherwise.

Rather, the problem is that no Buyers are even looking at the (overpriced) home.

No Showings = No Offers

Buyers typically don't make offers until at least a second showing, and often times a third.

If and when they reach the point of making an offer, many Buyers today feel obliged to start with a number that, to be generous, is "unrealistic" -- especially if the home is upper bracket and has lots of competition.

Once that's rejected -- and it always is -- the negotiation can begin in earnest.

P.S.: discussing hypothetical offers on a home that's not even getting showings reminds me of one of my favorite lines, "if your parents don't have kids, you won't either."