The First Two Weeks Decide What Your House Sells For
Sellers usually treat the asking price as something we can adjust later. In practice the number we launch with does most of the work, because every buyer who has been waiting for a house like yours sees it in the first two weeks.
After that the audience thins out to whoever is new to the market that week. It is why I spend longer on the pricing conversation than on almost anything else, and why I would rather disagree with a seller before we list than reduce twice afterwards.
Your best buyers are already looking
The people most likely to pay full price have saved a search and are watching it daily. They know the comparable listings better than most agents do. When your house appears, they can tell within a minute whether it is priced sensibly or hopefully.
An overpriced house sells the one down the street
Buyers use an expensive listing as a reference point and then go and buy the better value nearby. I have watched a seller spend six weeks making a competitor’s house look like a bargain, and then accept less than that competitor got.
Reductions read as a problem
By the second price cut, buyers stop asking what the house is worth and start asking what is wrong with it. Offers arrive lower than they would have on day one, usually with a longer list of requests attached.
Price into the search, not just the market
Buyers filter in round numbers. A house at 1,010,000 is invisible to everyone whose ceiling is a million, and there is rarely anyone above that bracket who would not have paid a little more anyway. Where your price sits against those brackets matters as much as the valuation.
What I actually recommend
Pick the number a well-informed buyer would call fair, launch there, and give the first two weeks everything: proper photographs, a real opening weekend, easy access for showings. If nothing lands in that window we talk honestly and quickly, rather than drifting into a third month.
