I receive automatic notifications of any listing changes.

They think it creates better "visibility" because of the barrage of automatic notifications.

It may backfire, though :)

That seems weird to me. Whenever I see a price reduction it says, 'we, or our realtor, overvalued our home.' To see them continually lowering a home every day sends a very negative message, daily reinforcing a subconscious idea that the home is grossly overpriced.

Who knows, maybe they'll start inching UP in 1.00 increments next week.

To me it sounds like someone who is trying to be creative, that's all. An unusual way of keeping the property in front of the people, so to speak.

With banks still not granting mortgages like they should, the agent has to do whatever s/he can to sell the property.

what christopher said.

Sounds like an agent that does not understand what happens on the consumer end when he/she edits a listing. He/she should set up a test listing first and see what all the World is seeing before blindly making silly price changes. Like a few posters here say... these silly price changes do create more visibility, but IMO, not in a good light.
Our MLS system now catches this tactic by showing all DOM (Days On Market) and CDOM (Cumulative Days On Market) which keeps the DOM running if there are price changes within the last 3 months. No more tricking the system.

My Realtor won't do it and the large firm she works for has a policy against it, although these listings show up on their site because of the MLS.

She says it's unfair because it bumps Legitimate price reductions down the list. The same with taking the property off for a day or two and relisting it as a "New Listing" continually. It bumps legitimate New Listings down the list. Her firm will not list something as "New" unless there was a certain minimum period where the house was off the market.

Some people track by New Properties and watch the Reductions and that's why it's unfair to the legitimate ones on the list.

I had an offer (which expired) on a house that did both of these things for over a year.(after my offer was rejected or expired) It was really annoying to see it keep showing up in my searches right at the top. Not because I was annoyed because I didn't get the house, but because I thought it was a "cheap" practice.

Well, I'm using Redfin, so every "price reduction" is listed under the property history. Honestly, it looks quite stupid.

Frankly,
If enough time has gone by that an agent thinks their listing needs a bump by doing a fake price change, then chances are it is time for a REAL price change. And this is what most buyers think when they keep seeing it pop up in their searches, as above posters point out.

Exactly.

Zillow shows the price history too. If you like the property, just make an offer at what you want to pay and see what happens. Silly to play those games.

Jane

I've noticed the new trend around here is away from small price reductions. Instead I'm getting emailed updates showing "listing description has been updated" or "Number of photos has changed".

In my crazy mind, these types of updates make me think the listing agent is on top of things, maybe responding to feedback from showings. When I see the price changes, even $100, I see it as a desperate attempt to keep the listing in front of the buyers.