Last month a listing in Normal Heights hit the market at $749,000. Clean two-bedroom, updated kitchen, decent yard. Within a week the seller dropped it to $725,000. A buyer I was working with panicked, thinking something was wrong with the house.
Nothing was wrong with the house. The seller had overpriced it on purpose.
This is something first-time buyers don't always realize. Pricing strategy on the seller's side is a game, and you're part of it whether you know it or not. Some sellers price high to "leave room for negotiation." Others price low to spark a bidding war. And some just pick a number their neighbor got two years ago and hope for the best.
Your job is to figure out which one you're dealing with.
Here's how I think about it. If a home sits for more than 10 days in a neighborhood where comparable sales are moving in five or six, the price is probably wrong. That doesn't mean the house is bad. It means the seller is either testing the market or got bad advice. Both of those things work in your favor.
A price reduction in the first two weeks? That's a signal. The seller is motivated and recalibrating. That's your window. I've seen buyers hesitate after a price drop because they assume another drop is coming. Sometimes it does. More of the time, someone else steps in while you're waiting.
The thing I wish more buyers understood is that sellers are regular people making emotional decisions about a house they're attached to. They're not running spreadsheets (well, some are). Most of them priced the house based on what they need to walk away with, not what the market says it's worth. That gap between what a seller wants and what the data supports is where your negotiation lives.
I tell my buyers to study the days on market number more than the list price. A house listed at $700,000 for 30 days in North Park is telling you a different story than one listed at $700,000 for three days. Same number, completely different conversations.
Pull up the MLS history before you write an offer. Look at original list date, any price changes, and whether it was previously listed with a different agent. That context shapes everything.
What did the seller do before you showed up? That's the question worth answering.