I know. That headline sounds a little backwards.
If you're selling your home, of course you want to get as much money as possible for it. And if you think your home might be worth $600,000, what's the harm in listing it for $625,000 or $650,000 just to see what happens?
After all, you can always lower the price later.
That strategy may sound reasonable. In today's market, though, it can actually work against you.
Buyers Are Still Buying
Let's start with something sellers should feel good about: there are buyers in the market.
In Buncombe County, closed home sales increased 6.7% in July compared with a year earlier, while pending sales increased 3.6%.
So this isn't a market where nobody is buying.
But buyers have changed.
Inventory in Buncombe County increased 6.8% year over year to 1,812 homes, giving buyers more choices. Homes also averaged 64 days on the market, compared with 49 days a year ago.
And perhaps most telling, sellers received an average of 93.6% of their original asking price.
In other words, homes are selling. But buyers have more time, more choices and more room to negotiate.
That makes getting the price right from the beginning especially important.
The First Few Weeks Matter
When your home first hits the market, it's new.
Buyers who have been searching for a home like yours receive alerts. Their agents notice it. People click through the photos, study the details and compare it with everything else they've been considering.
That's your opportunity to make a strong first impression.
And price is part of that first impression.
If buyers see your home and think, "That's a great house at that price," you create interest.
If they think, "Nice house, but they're asking too much," many won't make an offer.
They'll simply keep looking.
That's an important distinction.
Sellers sometimes assume an interested buyer will make a lower offer if the home is overpriced. Some will.
Others won't bother.
"But We Can Always Come Down"
Yes, you can.
The problem is that you can't make your listing new again.
Let's say you list your home at $650,000 when the market is really telling us it's closer to $600,000.
The first couple of weeks go by without an offer.
You reduce it to $625,000.
A few more weeks pass.
Eventually, you reduce it to $599,000.
Now you're priced where you probably should have been from the beginning—but the circumstances are different.
Instead of buyers seeing:
NEW LISTING — $599,000
they're seeing:
53 DAYS ON MARKET — PRICE REDUCED — $599,000
And that can create a completely different reaction.
Instead of worrying that another buyer might get the house first, they're wondering:
"Why hasn't it sold?"
"Is something wrong with it?"
Or perhaps most importantly:
"How much lower will the seller go?"
That's how an overly ambitious asking price can eventually give buyers more negotiating leverage, not less.
Your Home Doesn't Exist in a Vacuum
This is one of the biggest differences between today's market and the market we experienced a few years ago.
Buyers have alternatives.
If your home is listed for $650,000, they're not evaluating your home by itself. They're comparing it with every other property they can buy for roughly $650,000.
Maybe another home has a renovated kitchen.
Another has a larger yard.
Another has mountain views.
Another has been meticulously maintained.
And another is simply priced better.
You aren't just competing against homes that look exactly like yours. You're competing for the buyer who has a certain amount of money to spend.
That's why pricing isn't about asking:
"What's the most we could possibly get?"
It's about asking:
"At what price will buyers see this home as one of the best choices available to them?"
There's a big difference.
Your Neighbor's Sale Isn't Always Your Home's Value
This can be another difficult conversation.
Maybe a neighbor sold for $700,000.
Naturally, you remember that number.
But when did it sell?
What condition was it in?
How large was it?
Did it have renovations your home doesn't?
What was inventory like at the time?
What were mortgage rates?
And, perhaps most importantly, what are buyers choosing between today?
A sale from two or three years ago can provide useful information, but today's buyer isn't shopping in the market from two or three years ago.
They're shopping in this one.
And the latest Buncombe County numbers show a market where buyers are taking more time and negotiating more aggressively.
Pricing Correctly Doesn't Mean Pricing Low
This is an important distinction.
I'm not suggesting sellers should underprice their homes or leave money on the table.
Quite the opposite.
The goal is to identify the price that gives you the best opportunity to achieve the highest reasonable sales price the current market will support.
Sometimes sellers worry that if they price a home competitively, they'll somehow miss out on money they could have gotten.
But a compelling price can create something extremely valuable:
competition.
If several buyers want your home, you're in a much stronger position than if one buyer finally makes an offer after the house has been sitting on the market for two months.
That's why the highest asking price doesn't necessarily produce the highest selling price.
Preparation Matters, Too
Price isn't the only thing buyers are scrutinizing.
When buyers have more choices, condition and presentation become increasingly important.
That doesn't mean you need to renovate your entire house before selling it.
Often, relatively simple things can make a meaningful difference: taking care of deferred maintenance, touching up paint, improving curb appeal, decluttering, making rooms feel bright and inviting, and presenting the home with excellent photography.
The goal is to remove as many reasons as possible for a buyer to choose the house down the street instead of yours.
So, How Do You Know the Right Price?
This is where good market analysis becomes especially important.
I wouldn't determine a home's asking price based on an online estimate, what a neighbor sold for several years ago or how much money a seller hopes to walk away with.
I want to know:
What has actually sold recently?
What's currently under contract?
What's sitting on the market?
Where are sellers making price reductions?
How does your home compare in condition, location and features?
And what alternatives will a buyer see when they search in your price range?
Those questions tell us much more about what today's buyer is likely to pay.
The Bottom Line
If you're thinking about selling, wanting the highest possible price for your home is perfectly reasonable.
But asking for the most and getting the most aren't necessarily the same thing.
Today's Buncombe County market still has active buyers. July actually saw more closed sales than a year ago.
Those buyers simply have more choices, they're taking longer to make decisions, and they're negotiating.
That means your first asking price isn't just a number.
It's part of your marketing strategy.
Price the home too aggressively, and you may spend the next several months chasing the market.
Price it strategically, prepare it well and make buyers feel like they need to act—and you put yourself in a much better position to accomplish what you wanted in the first place:
Getting the most the market will pay for your home.
That's where thoughtful pricing - and good guidance - can make all the difference.
Guiding people home is about more than putting a sign in the yard. It's about understanding today's market and building a strategy around it.
