At Redfin, we're computer scientists, not sales people. We have access to listing databases and website logs.

And we want to provide practical answers to practical questions. Already we've published data-driven research designed to give you an advantage.

• Negotiating: when is a seller ready to accept an offer 10% below asking price? We identified seven characteristics of highly discounted homes.
• Hot Properties: what kind of properties sell in seven days? We studied the types of neighborhoods and homes that are virtually slump-immune.
• Commissions: does offering a higher commission really pay? We found out whether higher Realtor commissions lead to faster sales or better prices.
• Marketing: What's the best day to debut a listing? We identified seven tactics for maximizing exposure to a listing.

There's more in our blog and you can discuss the findings in our forum.

Even in a buyer's market, the typical seller will discount less than 2% off his asking price. But ten percent of sellers will discount more than 10%, a difference of $50,000 or more. How can you tell when a seller will stand firm or give ground?

In June 2008, Redfin analyzed more than 9,000 home sales in California, Virginia and Washington states to identify the common characteristics of homes offering the largest discount, so you know when to move in for the kill.

1. Focus on Listings Unsold After 90+ Days: You're 83% more likely to get a deal.
2. Focus on Fixer-Uppers: You're 73% more likely to get a deal.
3. Back Off on Remodels: You're 20% less likely to get a deal.
4. Don't Be Put Off by a Price Reduction: You're 28% more likely to negotiate a deal.
5. Look for Homes Owned a Long Time: You're 52% more likely get a deal when the home has been seller-owned for 20 years or more.
6. But Don’t be Put off by Flips Either: Homes seller-owned for less than 5 years were 9% more likely to offer a deal.
7. Don’t Expect Banks to Negotiate Much: You're 9% more likely to get a deal.

Read the full paper.

As a seller, what can you do to make your listing more successful? Our seven recommendation:

1. Don't Overprice Your Property: You could lose more in price reductions later.
2. Set Your Price to Show Up in Web Searches: Online activity can increase up to 7.1%.
3. Debut on Friday: You'll get up to 7.7% more visitors.

To see all seven tips, read the full report.

Does setting a higher commission lead to a faster sale, or a sale at a better price?

Our results show that it does not.

• Homes that set a typical commission took 68 days to sell, on average.
• Setting a lower commission increased days on market to 89 days.
• Setting a higher commission increased days on market to 129 days.

Read the full report.

We noticed that even in a slow market, some homes were selling in less than a week. We studied the Boston and Los Angeles listing databases to find out why. The bottom line is that hot properties are slightly bigger, newer and more expensive, and usually are in desirable neighborhoods.

There are distinct areas and house types where properties still sell fast, which continues to support our reason for doing this study in the first place — the real estate market isn’t really clinically depressed; it’s more of a split personality, with the good stuff selling fast, and the rest languishing.

Read the results for Boston and Los Angeles

To develop our recommendations, we consulted the following academic studies:

Anglin, Paul M. , Ronald Rutherford, and Thomas M. Springer. "The Trade-off Between the Selling Price of Residential Properties and Time-on-the-Market: The Impact of Price Setting." Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, 26, 2003, 95-111.

Herrin, William E., John R. Knight, and C.F. Sirmans. "Price Cutting Behavior in Residential Markets." Journal of Housing Economics, 13(3), 2004, 195-207.

Knight, John R. "Listing Price, Time on Market and Ultimate Selling Price: Causes and Effects of Listing Price Changes." Real Estate Economics, 30, 2002, 213-237.

The Center for Responsible Lending. "Subprime Spillover: Foreclosures Cost Neighbors $223 Billion; 44.5 Million Homes Lose $5,000 on Average." November 2007.

Glower, Michel, Donald R. Haurin, and Patric H. Hendershott. "Seller Time and Selling Price: The Influence of Seller Motivation." Real Estate Economics, 26, 1998, 719-740.

Hendel, Igal, Aviv Nevo, and François Ortalo-Magné. "The Relative Performance of Real Estate Marketing Platforms: MLS versus FSBOMadison.com." National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 13360, 2007.

Levitt, Steven D. and Chad Syverson. "Market Distortions when Agents are Better Informed: The Value of Information in Real Estate." National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 11053, 2005.

California Association of Realtors. "Internet vs. Traditional Buyer Real Estate Research Report." 2007.

Palmon, Oded, Barton A. Smith, and Ben J. Sopranzetti. "Clustering in Real Estate Prices: Determinants and Consequences." Journal of Real Estate Research, 26(2), 2004, 115-136.

Thomas, Manoj, Daniel H. Simon, Vrinda Kadiyali. "Do Consumers Perceive Precise Prices to Be Lower Than Round Prices? Evidence from Laboratory and Round Data." Johnson School Research Paper Series No. #09-07, September 2007.

The Redfin blog also discusses some of our data-driven research.

• Five Ways to Get a Good Deal on a Home Good Morning America (ABC-TV), Aug. 1, 2008
• The Science of Real Estate TODAY (NBC-TV), Dec.13, 2007
• Despite Housing Slide, Real Estate Sites Sell The New York Times, Jan. 28, 2008
• Don’t List a House on Thursday and Other Selling Advice The Wall Street Journal, Dec. 17, 2007
• D.C. Seller Finds Success With Pricing Advice The Washington Post, Feb. 16, 2008
• Seven Ways to Sell Faster and For a Higher Price The Seattle Times, Dec. 15, 2007
• Redfin Offers 7 Tips to Sell Your Home Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Dec. 14, 2007