My listing sat 47 days and I think the marketing package killed it

Garfield Park in November is a different animal than August, full stop. That market shifted hard in Q3 last year and 47 days with a $14k haircut honestly isn't a disaster for that pocket in that window, I've seen worse on comparable product. The "polished = hard sell" theory is interesting but I'd want to know more before I bought it. What was the list price relative to the comp next door, because if you came in $15k higher to recoup the marketing spend, you may have just priced yourself into the problem and the package is taking the blame for a pricing call.

The three-month gap is doing a lot of heavy lifting in your analysis and I'd be careful pinning it on the package. November in that corridor is genuinely slower money, buyers get cautious, financing gets weird near year-end, and $14k under on a Garfield Park townhome isn't a disaster it's almost expected depending on your basis. The neighbor's 11-day sale in August or whenever that was had seasonal tailwind you didn't. That said, I do think over-produced materials on a price-sensitive product can signal "developer is sweating this" to a buyer who already knows the neighborhood. What I'd actually want to know before your next four units is what your agent's absorption data looked like for that specific price band in that zip in the 60 days before you listed, because if comparable inventory was already sitting, no package saves you.

Chicago rates ticked up nearly 80 basis points between August and November 2024.