What Is the 10-10-0 Rule, and Why Does It Matter When I Sell?

The 10-10-0 rule is a simple trigger I use on every listing. Ten days without a showing, or ten showings without an offer, and something needs to change, either the price or the presentation. It matters because a home that is not working rarely fixes itself. Without a rule, the usual response is to wait and blame the market, and every week of waiting makes the next conversation about price harder. With a rule, the decision fires on its own, early, while a change still makes a real difference.

I'm Courtney Foster, a REALTOR® in Bozeman, Montana, helping longtime homeowners decide what their equity is for and move into a home that fits their life now. I would rather catch a problem with a listing in week two than in month three, and this rule is how I do it.

It is the two numbers and the result you do not want.

Ten days on the market without a single showing.

Ten showings without an offer.

Zero offers is the outcome the rule exists to prevent from dragging on.

Hit either of the first two, and it is time to change something rather than wait and hope.

Because feelings are a terrible way to manage a listing.

When a home is not selling, everyone involved has a reason to wait one more week. The seller hopes the right buyer is about to show up. The agent does not want to bring up price again. The market gets the blame. Meanwhile the listing gets older, buyers start to wonder what is wrong with it, and the eventual change has to be bigger to get the same attention back.

I remember in my earlier years in the business, I'd react and make decisions based upon emotions rather than facts. A rule fixes that. The value of a rule is that it fires on its own, before anybody has to admit anything. It turns a vague feeling that something is off into a specific moment to make a specific change.

It is a trigger, not a panic.

That buyers are not coming to see the house.

They are either not seeing it at all, or they are seeing it online and ruling it out from the listing. Both point to the same short list.

The price. This is the usual answer. Buyers compare everything they can see in their range, and a home priced above what they think it is worth simply does not make their list. That is a price conversation, and almost nothing else will fix it.

The exposure. If the home is not in front of enough of the right buyers, the showings will not come. That is the marketing question, and I wrote about what real marketing for a home looks like.

The photographs. The pictures are the first showing. If they are poor, buyers decide from their couch that the house is not worth the drive.

Something different. Buyers are coming, so the home is getting seen. They are walking through, comparing it with the other homes they have seen, and choosing those instead.

That usually points to one of two things.

Price against the competition. The home may be priced fine on its own and still lose to a similar home that offers more for the money.

Presentation once buyers are inside. Something in the condition, the layout, the clutter or the feel does not match what the price and the photographs promised. Buyers arrive expecting one house and find another.

This is where buyer-agent feedback earns its keep. I collect it within a day of every showing, in their words rather than my summary of them, and the patterns usually show up fast.

That is the market answering your price. It is information, not an insult, and it is worth reading before you decide how to respond. A low offer on a home that has had plenty of showings is telling you roughly where buyers see the value. Negotiating it well is the next step, not refusing to talk.

The price or the presentation. Sometimes both.

Presentation can mean new photographs, staging a room that is not working, finishing a repair buyers keep mentioning, or clearing out more of the house. It is the first thing to look at when showings are happening but offers are not. Step 3 of the Simple Selling Method™, Home Preparation, covers what that work usually involves.

Price means adjusting the number to where the market is actually responding. Earlier is better. A change in week two lands in front of buyers who are still paying attention. The same change months later lands on a listing they have already learned to scroll past.

When the rule fires, you hear a recommendation from me with the reasoning, and then the decision is yours. Your call. The rule decides when to have the conversation. You decide what to do.

The exact numbers can shift with how fast the market is moving. The discipline does not. In a fast market, ten days without a showing is a loud signal. In a slower season, the timing may be read a little differently. Either way, the point is the same: decide in advance what would tell you something is wrong, then act on it when it happens.

The 10-10-0 rule is part of Step 6 of the Simple Selling Method™, Market Response and Negotiation. That step is about managing showings and feedback, adjusting strategy in real time when it is needed, and negotiating the terms that protect you. "Adjust strategy in real time" needs a trigger rather than a feeling, and this is the trigger.

It works best when the earlier steps were done well. The right starting number comes out of Step 1, Clarity and Plan. A home that has been prepared and launched properly gives the rule clean information to read, because if something is not working, you know it is not the photographs or a half-empty room.

1. Set the price on real comparable homes, not on hope. The best protection is a number set correctly at the start.
2. Prepare and launch the home properly. That way the market is responding to the real house, shown well.
3. Watch showings from day one. Every showing gets counted and every buyer agent gets asked for feedback.
4. Check against the rule every week. You get a weekly update from me whether or not there is news, because no news is information too when you are the one waiting.
5. When the rule fires, read which signal it is. No showings and showings without offers point to different fixes.
6. Recommend one clear change. Price, presentation or both, with the reasoning.
7. Watch the response to the change. Then keep going.

• Starting high to leave room to negotiate. A home priced above the market is easy for buyers to ignore, and the first weeks on the market are the ones you never get back.
• Waiting for the right buyer to show up. If the showings are not happening, the right buyer has probably already looked and passed.
• Blaming the market. Homes are selling. If yours is not, the useful question is why yours.
• Changing the price when the problem is the presentation. Ten showings without an offer often means the house, not the number.
• Making the change too small. A tiny adjustment that buyers do not notice costs you the price cut and gets you nothing.
• Ignoring feedback because it stings. Buyer-agent comments are the most direct information you will get. Read them for patterns.

Does the 10-10-0 rule mean you will push me to lower my price?

No. It means you and I talk about it at a set point instead of drifting. Sometimes the answer is presentation, not price. Either way, you hear the reasoning and the decision is yours.

What if my home gets showings in the first week and then nothing?

That is still a signal. A burst of early showings followed by silence often means the buyers who were watching have seen it and passed. Look at the feedback from those first showings.

Is the rule different for a higher-priced home?

The idea is the same. Fewer buyers shop at the top of the market, so the timing can be read with that in mind, but a home that is not getting seen or not getting offers still needs a change.

What if I am not in a hurry to sell?

Then the rule matters even more. A listing that sits for months gets stale, and buyers start assuming something is wrong with it. Not being in a hurry is a reason to price it right, not a reason to wait.

Is it worth lowering the price if my home is not selling?

Often, yes, and earlier is better. That is the point of the rule. It triggers a change before the listing goes stale.

Can the rule tell me my home is priced too low?

A flood of showings and quick competing offers is the other side of the same signal. It is one more reason to watch the response closely from day one.

Do other agents use this?

Ask them what happens if your home has not sold in thirty days. You are listening for a rule with a trigger attached, not for optimism.

The rule works best when the starting price is right. I will put a real valuation together for your home, not an automated estimate, with nothing attached to asking. If your home is already on the market and not moving, this is what I would look at first. You can also see all seven steps of the Simple Selling Method™, tell me about your house, or call me at (406) 606-9551.

Courtney Foster is a REALTOR® in Bozeman, Montana, helping longtime homeowners decide what their equity is for and move into a home that fits their life now. www.CourtneyFoster.com