It’s Sunday evening and your phone lights up. It’s the owner.
“Can we drop the price?”
You know that message. Your stomach drops, because you’ve got two bad options. Say yes, and you’ve cut his money without fixing anything. Say no, and you’re the agent who won’t listen.
There’s a third option. Don’t answer the question yet.
Dropping the price is where the conversation ends, not where it starts
When an owner asks to drop the price, he’s reacting to silence. Weeks of nothing, and a price is the only lever he can see.
But a listing that isn’t selling fails on one of three things: price, presentation or promotion. Usually only one. If it’s promotion or presentation and you cut the price, you’ve cost him money and the real problem is still there. Four weeks later he’s asking again.
So before price comes up at all, you need three answers. With numbers.
Question one: how many viewings?
A number, not a feeling. Not “a few.” Six viewings in three weeks, or one in a month.
No viewings is the first signal. It means the listing isn’t being seen, or it’s priced so far above the last sales that buyers aren’t bothering to enquire.
If there are no viewings, check promotion before anything else, because it’s the one you control completely. Is it on every portal and ranking rather than buried? Have you sent it to your own buyer list individually, not in a bulk email? Has the office pitched it on calls this week? Which agents in your network have buyers registered for exactly this?
If all of that is genuinely covered and the phone is still quiet, then it’s price.
Question two: how many offers?
Viewings but no offers is a different diagnosis entirely.
The price got them through the door. Something in the house sent them back out. That’s presentation, and no price cut fixes a dark bedroom, a dated kitchen or a tenant’s belongings everywhere.
Cutting the price here is the most expensive mistake an agent can make. The owner loses money and the buyers keep walking out for the same reason.
Question three: what did the viewers actually say?
This is the question most agents skip, because they don’t have the answer.
If you’ve asked every viewer one question and written down what they said, you can tell the owner exactly what’s happening. Three viewings, and all three mentioned the same thing. That’s a pattern, and the owner can see it for himself.
If you haven’t, this is your reminder. After every viewing, one line, in the viewer’s own words.
Only when it’s price do you talk about price
Sometimes it is price. The asking sits well above what has actually sold in the building, and buyers are waiting for it to drop.
When that’s the answer, the way you say it matters more than the number. Most valuations get argued with because of how the number was delivered. “I think it’s maybe around” tells the owner the figure is soft, so everything above it becomes an opening position.
Say it flat. Based on what has sold in this building in the last six months, it’s this.
Then stop. Don’t fill the silence. He’s thinking, not objecting, and the two look identical. Whoever speaks first concedes.
If he quotes a higher number from another agent
Don’t argue it and don’t agree with it. Ask one question.
Who is going to pay that?
Not rhetorically. Which buyer, from where, and what did they pay for the last one like it. Then show him the last three sales in his building, actual closed prices, actual dates.
You’ll lose some of these. The ones you win, sell. The ones you lose tend to come back a few months later, when the high number hasn’t moved.
What to do this week
Next time an owner asks to drop the price, don’t answer. Say you want to look at the numbers first, then come back with the three: viewings, offers, and what viewers said.
Write them down before you reply. Tell him which P it is, and what you’re doing about it.
That’s the exercise behind Day 19 of the 30 Day Listings Challenge I’m running on Instagram, one task a day, under twenty minutes. If you want the daily templates, comment CHALLENGE on any post @yourrealestatecoo and the tracker lands in your DMs.
If you’d rather get the numbers behind your own listings looked at, book a free 30 minute call, no pitch, just a plan: https://calendly.com/yourrealestatecoo/30min
Or start with the daily scorecard, one page, four numbers, free: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UQPZag0bQiJc5jFN9lyxD4Liy5JrnPSt/view
Mind. Method. Market.
