How Far Can You Or Should You Round Up The List Price For Your Home?

Sometimes it is tempting for a seller to want to round up their list price.

The seller says (or thinks)...

"We think the house is worth $240K?  And you're saying we should list it for $245K or $249K?  I'm optimistic -- I think someone is going to be willing to pay $250K, so let's list it for $260K!  A buyer can always make an offer!"

That's all well and fine and good -- and somewhat logical -- unless every buyer that comes to see the house in the first three weeks really thinks it is worth $240K.

Then, when leaving the house priced at $260K, if they are willing to pay $240K, they are likely thinking they'd need to offer $220K in order to negotiate you down to the value of $240K.

And they almost certainly won't make the offer.

If a house priced at $260K has been on the market for a few days, most buyers aren't going to make an offer of $220K.  They might think it is a waste of their time.  They might not want to insult the seller.  Regardless of the reason, you are not likely to have $220K offers on a $260K listing within the first few weeks.

Thus, the buyer who excitedly came to see your $260K house, and then concluded that it is probably worth $240K (where we started this conversation) is likely to conclude that they should just wait a month or so and see if you eventually reduce the price to $250K -- and then they might consider an offer.

But by the time you reduce the price to $250K, you are bound to get significantly less buyer/market attention with that price reduction since it is no longer a new listing.  And some of the originally interested buyers will have found something else to buy.  And there will be much less urgency for any buyer to make a decision about an offer.