How Selling Works, Part 6

Reading the Market While News of Your Listing Spreads

Your home’s listing is live. Showings are happening. Feedback is trickling in.

And now, the waiting begins.

Except it's not really waiting. Not on my end, anyway.

This is one of the most subtle but important phases of the entire process, and it can look very quiet from the outside. Before any offer ever shows up, the market is speaking to us.

Our job is to listen closely enough to hear it.

Two Strategies, One Honest Conversation

Before we ever went live, we made a choice together.

Did we price aggressively, essentially setting up a five-day auction, expecting strong early activity, multiple offers, and maybe even some price escalation?

Or did we price a little more conservatively, using a "price discovery" approach, where we let the market help us find the number rather than guessing at it upfront?

Both are legitimate strategies. I use both, depending on you and your desires, depending sometimes on the home, the neighborhood, and what's happening in the market at that moment.

But here's the key.

Whichever one we chose, I want you to know what to expect from it.

If we went the auction route, we're watching for a surge. Multiple showings in the first few days, agents calling with questions, maybe even offers arriving before the first weekend is over.

If we went the price discovery route, we're watching for something different. Steady interest, but likely without the fireworks. And honestly... a price adjustment somewhere down the road is often part of the plan, not a sign that something went wrong.

Knowing which game we're playing changes how we read everything that happens next.

It's Not About Days on Market. It's About Traffic.

Here's something I tell every seller, and it tends to surprise people.

I don't put much stock in "days on market" by itself.

Ten days on market with steady showings tells me something completely different than ten days on market with almost no activity.

What I actually watch is the traffic pattern.

As a general rule, I want to see two to three showings a week.

That's the range that tells me we're priced in the zone where the right buyers are finding us and taking action.

When we're consistently getting that kind of traffic, even without an offer yet, I'm not worried. That's a home doing exactly what it should be doing.

But when showings slow to one a week, or stop altogether, that may not be a listing that "just needs more time."

That's often the market telling us something about price.

And when the market's telling you something, the smart move is to listen early, not months later.

Why We Don't Do Stair-Step Price Drops

Now, if a price adjustment is needed, here's where I get a little stubborn.

I don't believe in small, stair-step price drops. Five thousand dollars here. Ten thousand there. A little chip off the top every few weeks.

I know it feels safer. It feels like testing the water instead of jumping in.

But here's what actually happens.

Buyers notice patterns. And a series of small drops teaches the buyer pool one lesson, loud and clear:

"Wait. It'll probably come down again. And then again."

Instead of creating urgency, small drops create hesitation. Buyers start circling instead of acting, waiting to see how low we'll go before they commit.

That's the opposite of what a price adjustment is supposed to do.

When we do adjust, I'd rather make one meaningful move, a change significant enough to re-energize the listing, generate a new wave of attention, and put us back in front of buyers who weren't looking at us before.

One decisive step forward beats five hesitant ones.

New Competition Changes the Picture, Even If Nothing About Your Home Did

Something else I'm watching closely during this window: what else just hit the market.

A new listing two streets over. A freshly remodeled home in your price range. A property that undercuts you by fifteen thousand dollars with similar square footage.

None of that has anything to do with your home.

But it changes how buyers see your home.

Here in Whatcom County, inventory can shift fast, sometimes neighborhood by neighborhood, sometimes season by season. A quiet street can suddenly have three competing listings within a two week stretch.

When that happens, I'm not just tracking your listing anymore. I'm tracking the whole board, so we understand exactly how you're positioned relative to everything a buyer is cross-shopping against.

The Bigger Picture Matters, Too

Beyond your specific street or neighborhood, I'm also watching the wider market.

Interest rate movement.

Seasonal shifts, like the start of the school year or the slowdown that tends to hit around the holidays.

Broader buyer confidence, which can shift for reasons that have nothing to do with real estate at all.

None of these things are about your home specifically. But they absolutely affect how buyers behave, how many are actively looking, and how quickly they're willing to make decisions.

This Is Where the Real Conversations Happen

I want to be clear about something.

I'm not going to panic after one quiet week, and I don't want you to either.

But I'm also not going to let three or four quiet weeks go by without an honest conversation.

That's really what this phase is about.

Reading traffic. Reading feedback. Reading competition. Reading the broader market.

And then bringing you real information, not guesses, not gut feelings, so that if a change is needed, we make it with confidence instead of fear.

The market doesn't care what we need, we talked about that back in Part 4. But it will absolutely tell us what it wants, if we're paying attention.

Final Thoughts

This is the phase where good agents earn their keep, not by predicting the future, but by watching closely enough to catch the signals early.

Strong traffic tells us to stay the course.

Soft traffic tells us it's time for a real conversation, not a nervous one.

And whatever we decide, we decide it together, with real data instead of assumptions.

In Part 7 of this series, we'll get to the moment everyone's been waiting for: what happens when the first offer actually arrives, how to read it beyond just the price, and what it looks like when more than one buyer wants your home.

Until then... stay patient. The right activity is usually happening, even when it's quiet.