Short answer: probably — but not simply because you hit 60 days.

If your Smithfield home has been on the market for 60 days and you have had very few showings, no offers, or repeated buyer feedback about price, I would seriously consider making a meaningful price adjustment.

The bigger question isn't, “How many days has my house been listed?”

It's:

“What has the market been telling us during those 60 days?”

After more than 20 years selling real estate, I've learned that sellers can get into trouble when they keep waiting for a different answer after buyers have already given them one.

And right now, buyers have more choices.

REIN reported 6,097 active residential listings across Hampton Roads in July 2026 — the first time inventory had topped 6,000 since May 2020. That's 7.64% more homes for sale than a year earlier.

The median days on market was 23 days.

That does not mean every Smithfield home should sell in 23 days. Smithfield and Isle of Wight are very different markets from Virginia Beach, Chesapeake or Newport News.

But it does tell us something important:

Today's buyer has choices.

And when buyers have choices, pricing matters even more.

How Do I Know If Price Is Really the Problem?

Before changing the price, I want to look at three things.

1. Are people looking online but not scheduling showings?

This is one of the clearest signals I watch.

Suppose your home has hundreds of online views but almost nobody actually schedules an appointment.

That's useful information.

The buyers have already seen:

• Your price
• Your location
• Your photos
• Your number of bedrooms and bathrooms
• Your square footage
• Your basic features

And after seeing all of that, they decided not to come.

You can advertise the property more. You can post it on Facebook again. You can change a few words in the description.

But if plenty of qualified buyers are seeing the home and they still aren't scheduling showings, we have to consider the possibility that the price isn't creating enough value to get them through the door.

2. Are buyers showing the house but not making offers?

This tells us something slightly different.

Now we've successfully gotten buyers inside.

They liked the home enough online to make an appointment, but once they compared it with the other homes available to them, they chose something else.

Maybe your kitchen is dated.

Maybe the roof is older.

Maybe there's a busy road nearby.

Maybe another home has a garage and yours doesn't.

None of those things necessarily prevent a house from selling.

I've sold plenty of homes with things buyers didn't love.

But the price has to make sense in light of those things.

Sometimes sellers ask me:

“Can't we just wait for the buyer who doesn't care about that?”

Maybe.

But that buyer usually doesn't want to pay the same price as someone buying a house without that objection.

That's an important difference.

What If We're Getting the Same Feedback Over and Over?

I pay close attention to repeated feedback.

One buyer saying the kitchen is dated doesn't mean much.

Five buyers saying it?

Now we have a pattern.

The same goes for comments like:

• “It needs too much work.”
• “We liked another home better for the money.”
• “The yard was smaller than expected.”
• “The location wasn't right for us.”
• “It's nice, but it feels expensive compared with the others.”

We can't change every objection.

We can't move the house.

We can't make the lot bigger.

We can't change the neighborhood.

And sometimes a seller doesn't want to spend thousands of dollars updating the property.

That's okay.

Price is one of the tools we can use to compensate for things we cannot or do not want to change.

Should I Just Wait Another 30 Days?

This is where I tend to be pretty direct with sellers.

If nothing is going to change during those 30 days, what are we waiting for?

There are certainly times when patience makes sense.

Maybe we're entering a stronger selling season.

Maybe major repairs are almost finished.

Maybe an unusual property simply needs more time to find the right buyer.

Smithfield, Carrollton and rural Isle of Wight properties can have very different buyer pools than homes in more densely populated parts of Hampton Roads.

So I don't believe in automatically reducing a home's price because a calendar tells us to.

But I also don't like this strategy:

“Let's leave it where it is and hope somebody eventually comes along.”

Hope isn't much of a marketing plan.

If comparable homes are selling while ours keeps sitting, I want to know why.

How Much Should I Reduce My Price?

This may be the most important part of the conversation.

If we're going to reduce the price, let's make the reduction large enough to matter.

A tiny price reduction may generate a new notification on a real estate website, but that doesn't necessarily change how buyers see the property.

For example, lowering a $400,000 home to $398,000 probably doesn't create a whole new group of interested buyers.

Sometimes a small adjustment is appropriate.

But sometimes it's basically cosmetic.

Instead, I want to ask:

At what price does this property become noticeably more attractive compared with what buyers can purchase instead?

That's the number that matters.

To answer that, I would look at:

1. Homes that have sold since we listed.
2. Homes that went under contract while ours remained available.
3. New competing listings.
4. Recent price reductions.
5. Showing activity.
6. Online activity.
7. Buyer and agent feedback.
8. Changes in the local market.

When we originally listed the property, our price was based on the best information available at the time.

After 60 days, we have something we didn't have on day one:

actual market response.

That's valuable information.

Will Buyers Think Something Is Wrong If I Lower the Price?

Usually not.

Price adjustments are common.

Most buyers don't see a reasonable price change and immediately think something terrible happened to the house.

What can create concern is a property sitting on the market for a long time without the seller responding to what buyers are telling them.

Eventually buyers start wondering:

“Why hasn't anybody bought this?”

A well-timed price adjustment can actually breathe new life into a listing.

It can expose the home to buyers searching in a lower price range.

It can bring back buyers who previously passed.

And it can turn a property that buyers thought was merely “nice” into one they suddenly think is a good value.

Should My Agent Improve the Marketing Before Cutting the Price?

Absolutely.

Before I recommend lowering a seller's price, I want to know that we've done our job.

Are the photos strong?

Does the listing show the home accurately?

Is the house easy to show?

Is the property being promoted?

Have we responded to buyer feedback?

Is there a relatively inexpensive repair or improvement that could make a meaningful difference?

Those questions matter.

I don't believe price should become an excuse for poor marketing.

But the opposite is also true.

Marketing shouldn't become an excuse for avoiding a pricing conversation.

You can market an overpriced home beautifully.

It's still overpriced.

At some point, price becomes part of the marketing.

What Would I Tell a Smithfield Seller Sitting Across the Table From Me?

I wouldn't tell you to reduce your price simply because your home has been listed for 60 days.

I'd look at what happened during those 60 days.

If buyers haven't seen the property, we need to understand why.

If they've seen it but aren't making offers, we need to understand why.

If they're repeatedly telling us the same thing, we need to listen.

And if similar homes are selling while yours isn't, doing nothing probably isn't the answer.

Sometimes I'll recommend better marketing.

Sometimes I'll recommend fixing something.

Sometimes I'll tell a seller to be patient.

And sometimes I'll say:

We need to change the price.

My job isn't to tell you what you want to hear just so I can keep the listing.

My job is to give you the information I would want if it were my house and my money on the line.

Have a Question About Your Particular Situation?

If you're thinking about selling a home in Smithfield, Isle of Wight, Carrollton, Suffolk or elsewhere in Hampton Roads and you’re wondering how price, condition, timing or marketing could affect your sale, ask me. I’m happy to talk through your situation and give you a straightforward opinion before you ever put the home on the market.

Call or text me at 757-880-7061 or email [email protected].  If you're considering selling and have a question about your particular situation, ask me. I'm happy to give you a straightforward answer.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is 60 days a long time for a house to be on the market in Smithfield?

It depends on the property, location, price range and current competition. Rural and unique properties can naturally take longer to sell. What matters most is how your home's activity compares with similar properties buyers could purchase instead.

How quickly should I reduce my price if there are no showings?

If a properly marketed home receives very little showing activity during its first few weeks, I would review the price rather than automatically waiting 60 or 90 days. Buyers seeing the listing online but choosing not to visit can be an important pricing signal.

How much should I lower my home's price?

There isn't a universal percentage. The reduction should be based on current competing homes, recent sales, buyer feedback and the price points buyers are actually searching. A meaningful adjustment is usually better than making repeated tiny reductions that don't change buyer behavior.

Can better marketing fix an overpriced house?

Better marketing can get more buyers to see a home, but marketing cannot force buyers to believe a property is worth more than its alternatives. If buyers are seeing the property and consistently choosing something else, price may eventually need to become part of the solution.

Should I take my house off the market instead of reducing the price?

Sometimes that makes sense, but simply removing and relisting a home doesn't solve the underlying reason buyers rejected it. Before doing that, I would first determine whether the issue is price, condition, presentation, timing or something else.