Here’s a way to let the market dictate the price on a house: Lower it in regular increments until someone bites. I ran across a listing in Sumer that promises to discount the price of a two-bedroom house by $1,000 a week, like an auction in reverse.

As of today, the list price was $190,999 – $9,000 lower than when it was put on the market about two months ago, according to Keller Williams listing agent Leslie Williams. How low does he expect it to go? Williams said that’s up to his client but that she knows the average time on market in the Sumner area is four months.

In a softer market, Williams said sellers need to think outside the box. A few weeks after putting the property up for sale, the owner was considering a $5,000 to $10,000 price drop. Williams said he wanted, instead, to try a marketing tactic that would stand out from a crowd of price-reduced listings.

“What we were seeing before the reductions, we were seeing a drop in interest in the property. The flurry of interest comes, and it’s gone after a week or two,” he said.

Traffic, he said, has since picked up on the property’s Web listing. The house, which isn’t quite 1,000 square feet, was built in 1955. Williams is pitching it as ideal for an investor. The marketing remarks mention work needed, but Williams said the fixes are minor, such as a cracked window in the laundry room.

“I think it’s just a matter of time,” he said.

What do you think? Anyone else seen something similar? Or any other creative marketing tactics in recent weeks?