Your first price is the whole game. Not your second price after 45 days.

The sellers capturing about 97 cents on the dollar right now are not the ones who priced high and negotiated down. They are the ones who priced into the market on day one. Here is the difference between sold and sitting.

I have this conversation most weeks. Roody, price cuts are down and inventory is low. I am going to throw it across the plate and see if I get a home run out of it.

I understand the instinct. I am telling you it does not work in this market, and the data on what sellers actually collect explains why.

What sellers are really getting

The typical Orlando seller currently closes at roughly 97% of asking price. The ones who do better than that did not get there by starting high. They got there by starting at a number the evidence supported, generating real activity in the first two weeks, and never giving a buyer a reason to think the home was overpriced.

Do not price with the number you want. Price with the number you have evidence the market will pay. That is not the same as selling yourself short. It is the opposite: it is how you protect the price you get.

What an overpriced listing actually does

Here is the part that stings. When your home is priced above the market, you are not just failing to sell. You are helping your neighbors sell.

Buyers tour four or five homes in a day and compare them against each other. Your listing becomes the expensive one that makes the fairly priced one down the street look like a deal. You are doing their marketing for them and paying carrying costs for the privilege.

I am not trying to be harsh. That is the functional way this works on the buying side, and it is worth understanding before you pick a number.

Your competition is not the house down the street

In a lot of this metro, your real competition is a sales office. Builders are currently offering rate buydowns of one to two percentage points, closing cost credits between $5,000 and $15,000, and sub-5% permanent buydowns on standing inventory they want moved.

A buyer comparing monthly payments can find that a brand new home with a higher sticker price costs less per month than your resale. You have to price knowing that offer is sitting on the table two miles away.

Every week you sit past the right number is a cost you pay, against a buyer who has options and knows it.

And it is not only price

When a home is not selling, it is almost always price and appeal being out of alignment. Sometimes it is a marketing gap and the photos are doing you no favors. It is rarely bad luck.

Condition, presentation and photography decide whether yours is the home they remember at dinner. Price decides whether they come at all.