When someone asks me what their home is worth, I do not start with a number. I start with a question. Why are you selling?
That sounds backwards. It is not. The reason behind your move shapes the right pricing strategy more than any spreadsheet. A family relocating for a job in sixty days needs a different plan than a couple testing the market with no deadline. Same house. Different price. Different strategy.
The story comes first
Every real estate decision has a story behind it. Before I create a pricing plan, I want to understand yours. Your timeline, your next move, what the money needs to do for you, and what you can live with. When I understand the story, the strategy almost writes itself.
The right price is not a guess and it is not a wish. It is a decision built on information.
What actually sets the price
Once I understand your situation, the work is straightforward. Not easy, but straightforward.
- Real comparables. Not the house down the street that has been sitting for 120 days. Recent sales of genuinely similar homes in your part of the market, whether that is Germantown, Collierville, Bartlett, East Memphis, or across the line in DeSoto County.
- Condition, honestly assessed. Buyers do not pay for your memories. They pay for what they can see and what the inspection will show. The devil is in the details, and small details often create the biggest differences in what a home brings.
- Timing and momentum. The first two weeks on market are when your home has the most attention it will ever have. Price it right on day one and you use that attention. Price it wrong and you spend months chasing the market down.
- Terms, not just price. Sometimes the strongest offer is not the highest one. Financing strength, closing timeline, and contingencies matter as much as the number on page one.
The overpricing trap
I understand the temptation. Start high, you can always come down. Here is what actually happens: the buyers who would have loved your home at the right price never see it, because it is sorted into the wrong search bracket. The ones who do see it compare it to better homes at that price and move on. Thirty days later you reduce, and now buyers ask what is wrong with it.
Time kills deals. It also kills listings. Momentum matters, and you only get one launch.
What I will not do
I will not tell you a number you want to hear just to win the listing. Some agents buy listings with flattery and sell them with price reductions. That costs you money and months. My approach is simple: I tell clients what they need to know, not just what they want to hear. Then the decision is yours. It always is.