It is about trying to alter buyer psychology. In this market, “all” buyers think the longer they wait the lower the price will go. Some buyers may even have their eyes on a specific property, but as they see the price drops continuously every few weeks or months, they figure the longer they wait, the lower it will get, and finally they will be able to buy it for much less.

This Seller may be fairly smart actually (the first time). Subsequent attempts at the same strategy fall under the category of insanity (trying the same thing over and over and expecting different results).

By creating a huge price drop, the seller piqued the interest of qualified and interested buyers, and then by slowly increasing the price, was hoping to scare the buyers into thinking the price was getting away from them(ie. no longer dropping, but now climbing) and if they didn’t act soon, it would keep going higher. In some areas this strategy actually works, apparently for this seller, it has not yet worked.

There is also the annoying strategy some agents have of lowering the price by $1 every few days so it stays active on the MLS listing ‘hot sheets’ (not bad either, just annoying)