What better listing content did for a rural house that had sat four months

The utilities sheet is doing more work than the photos and I'd bet money on it. Rural buyers at that price point are underwriting risk, not falling in love. Well, septic, roof, heat. Those four items are the difference between a $118,000 house and a $118,000 house plus $22,000 of unknown, and until someone answers them the buyer prices in the unknown or doesn't come at all.

Your price drop absolutely did some of the work, and I'd guess it did more than half of it. But a $6,000 cut on its own is a 5% move, which rarely converts a house that's had six showings in four months. What changed is that the next set of showings arrived pre-informed and the property stopped looking like a mystery.

One thing I'd add for anyone copying this. The land line matters more than people think out here. That drone clip showing where the 1.4 acres actually sits is the thing I look for and almost never get, because a rural listing with only house photos leaves me unable to tell whether the acreage is usable or a ditch and a slope. Cheapest content you can buy on a land-heavy listing.

The part I'd watch is that you paid for marketing the seller's agent should have supplied. It worked here. It also means the next seller in that market gets nine phone photos.

Did the better photos come up at all on the lender or appraisal side? Appraisers do pull listing photos when working comps, and it is an open question whether a listing with 28 photos versus nine changes anything there. Probably not, but having both versions of the same house documented is rare, and this thread is a useful record of it.

The $6,000 did most of the work. Four months and six showings is a price problem wearing a marketing costume. Arbor's 5% math is fair, and $118k to $112k also crosses a search filter for a lot of buyers, since "under $115k" is a real bracket. The sheet was far from useless. Two variables changed at once, though, and when that happens the price cut usually earns the credit.

What would you have done if it hadn't sold? That's the version I want to hear, because at $680 on a $112,000 asking price you spent 0.6% of the ask on content, and if week ten had come with no offers the next move is another cut, and then the $680 is just gone. Did you have a stop point in mind or were you going to keep spending?