Here’s a question I think more sellers should ask when interviewing a real estate agent:
Is your agent trying to get you the best possible outcome—or are they trying to get your house sold as quickly as possible so they can move on to the next one?
Those two things are not always the same.
After more than 25 years in real estate, I’ve watched agents use all kinds of pricing strategies. One that has never sat particularly well with me is deliberately pricing a home below what the agent believes it might actually be worth simply to generate activity, get it under contract quickly, and move on.
It can make the agent look like a rock star.
“Sold in three days!”
“Multiple offers!”
“Under contract the first weekend!”
Great. But I have a different question:
Could the seller have gotten more?
A Home Pricing Strategy Should Be About the Seller
There are absolutely situations where pricing aggressively is the right home pricing strategy.
Maybe the seller needs to move quickly. Maybe they’ve already purchased another home. Maybe carrying two mortgages isn’t an option. Maybe certainty is more important to them than testing the upper end of the market.
If that’s the seller’s priority, I’m completely on board.
What bothers me is when the pricing strategy is driven more by what’s easiest for the agent than by what could be best for the seller.
If I believe your home is worth around $425,000 and you tell me you’d really like to try $450,000, I’m not automatically going to tell you no.
I’m going to look at the numbers and ask:
Is $450,000 defensible enough that it’s worth testing?
Because sometimes it is.
Sometimes Selling Your Home Requires Testing the Market
I recently sold a home in the Hunters Creek area where we dealt with exactly this situation.
I initially thought we should be closer to $425,000. My seller wanted to start at $450,000.
So we did.
We put the house on the market at $450,000 and watched what happened.
We got some showings, but not enough activity to tell us the market was accepting our price. So rather than making one dramatic price cut, we made calculated price reductions over time.
Eventually, we found the market and sold the home.
Would it have been faster to simply list it at $425,000 from day one?
Possibly.
But here’s the question I think sellers should consider:
What if someone had bought it at $450,000?
If I had convinced my seller to immediately accept my $425,000 opinion without testing the higher number, we’d never know.
And if you don’t ask, the answer is always no.
Do Price Reductions Make a Seller Look Desperate?
I hear this one frequently.
“If we reduce the price, won’t buyers think we’re desperate?”
Not necessarily.
A real estate price reduction can simply mean that the market gave us information we didn’t have when we started.
We tried one price.
Buyers didn’t respond strongly enough.
Now we know something.
So we adjust.
That’s not desperation. That’s information.
Real estate pricing isn’t always an exact science. There are times when I can pull comparable sales and the answer practically jumps off the page. I love those. They’re easy.
But other homes aren’t nearly that simple.
Maybe the floor plan is unusual. Maybe the house has been substantially upgraded. Maybe the neighborhood doesn’t have many recent comparable sales. Maybe there are features that are difficult to quantify.
That’s when experience, judgment and a willingness to test the market become particularly important.
Does Longer Time on the Market Hurt a Home Sale?
Potentially, yes.
I’m not going to pretend otherwise.
The longer a property sits on the market, the more likely some buyers and agents are to wonder why it hasn’t sold.
What’s wrong with it?
That’s a legitimate consideration when developing a listing strategy.
But days on market are only one part of the equation.
The question shouldn’t simply be, “How quickly can we sell this house?”
It should be:
“What strategy gives this particular seller the best opportunity to accomplish what matters to them?”
Sometimes that means pricing aggressively and trying to sell immediately.
Sometimes it means starting slightly higher and giving the market an opportunity to respond.
And sometimes it means trying one strategy, realizing it isn’t working, and changing course.
Your Listing Agent Should Be Willing to Listen
This may be the most important part.
I don’t think a good listing agent’s job is to walk into your house and dictate what you’re going to do.
My job is to give you the information I’ve gathered, explain what I believe it means, discuss the risks and benefits of the different options, and then help you make an informed decision.
It’s your house.
It’s your equity.
It’s your money.
If I think you’re asking a price that the market simply can’t support, I’ll tell you.
But if there’s enough evidence that a higher price might work, and you understand the potential downside of additional days on market, I’m willing to have that conversation.
I’m also willing to play the long game when it makes sense.
The Highest Price Isn’t Always the Best Outcome
There’s an important distinction here.
Playing the long game doesn’t mean overpricing a home and stubbornly refusing to adjust.
That’s not a strategy.
A good home pricing strategy needs checkpoints.
Are we getting online activity?
Are buyers scheduling showings?
What feedback are we receiving?
Are comparable properties going under contract while ours sits?
Has something changed in the market?
Those are signals.
And if the market tells us we’re too high, we respond.
That’s why I prefer calculated price reductions rather than simply throwing a number against the wall and hoping something happens.
Ask Your Real Estate Agent About Their Pricing Philosophy
When you’re interviewing agents to sell your home, don’t only ask:
“What do you think my house is worth?”
Ask them something else:
“What happens if we disagree about the starting price?”
Their answer may tell you quite a bit.
You want an agent who will give you honest advice—even when it’s not what you want to hear—but who is also willing to listen.
Because there’s a difference between an agent saying:
“I don’t believe the market supports that price, and here’s why.”
and:
“I just want this priced where I know I can sell it quickly.”
One is professional advice.
The other may be what’s easiest for the agent.
Are You Willing to Play the Long Game?
Every seller is different, and every property is different.
There is no single home pricing strategy that works for every home in Ocoee, Winter Garden, Windermere, Orlando, or anywhere else in Central Florida.
Sometimes the comps give us an obvious answer.
Sometimes the market needs to give us the answer.
And frankly, I enjoy those more complicated ones.
I like figuring out what the market will bear. Sometimes I’m right and we get more than we initially thought we could.
Sometimes the market tells us no, and we adjust.
But when there’s a reasonable opportunity to put more money in my seller’s pocket, I’m willing to explore it.
Because my goal isn’t simply to put a SOLD sign in the yard as quickly as possible.
My goal is to help my seller make the best decision we can with the information we have.
If you’re considering selling your home in Central Florida and you’d like to talk about what your home might be worth—and the strategy I’d use to sell it—give me a call.
When you hire David Dorman, you GET David Dorman.
David Dorman, Broker Associate
CENTURY 21 Carioti
2747 Maguire Rd., Ocoee, FL 34761
407-948-8295
david@daviddorman.com
DavidDorman.com
LiveInOrlandoFL.com