Seller Action Plan · Roody Souverain

If you are in one of the mixed or softer markets, what I call Market 2 or Market 3, the one thing I can tell you is that realistic pricing on day one is not optional. It is everything.

Do not price with the number you want. Price with the number you have evidence the market will likely pay. I am not saying sell yourself short or give your house away. I am saying research is the whole job here, and it has to happen before you go live, not after.

The sellers who are winning right now are the ones capturing something close to the full asking price, and they got there because they priced into the market rather than above it. That difference in strategy is the difference between sold and sitting. Pick your metro on the chart below and you will see the number your own buyers are working from.

What sellers actually get versus what they ask

Metro

Source: Zillow Research · Data through August 2024

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

The conversation I have every week

I know what you are going to say. 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 am telling you: the listings sitting out there right now are a function of price and appeal. Maybe, just maybe, it is an advertising gap and the agent is doing a poor job marketing it. But far more often it is price and appeal being out of alignment. Buyers look at the house, look at your asking price, and go what in the world is going on here.

And here is the part that stings. When you do that, you are helping all of your neighbors sell their homes. Your overpriced listing is the comparison that makes their fairly priced one look like a deal. I am not trying to be mean. That is the functional way this works on the buying side.

This is my professional judgment from working this market, not a measured statistic.

Your competition is not the house down the street

In a lot of these corridors it is a builder with a rate buydown and closing cost credits. A buyer comparing monthly payments may find new construction cheaper than your resale even at a higher sticker price. You have to price knowing that is on the table.

Sitting costs real money every month

Mortgage, taxes, insurance, utilities, upkeep. Every week past the right number is carrying cost paid against a buyer who has multiple options and knows it. The market does not reward patience at the wrong price.

Appeal is half the equation

Buyers tour four or five homes in a day and compare them against each other, not against your memory of 2022. Condition, photos and presentation decide whether yours is the one they remember at dinner.

Share of Florida listings cutting price

Source: Realtor.com Economic Research · Data through September 2026

Check what market your ZIP is in See the full data

Want this run on your own ZIP code?

Answer a few questions and I will write you a seller report on your ZIP: what it is doing right now against its own pre-pandemic normal, how often sellers there are cutting, and what that means for your first price. Every number is live and sourced. It is free, and I will call you to walk through it.

Next step

Check the number before you commit to it

The Listing Line does not tell you what your house is worth. Nobody can do that from a screen. It shows what an informed buyer in your ZIP code will anchor to, and what every week above that number costs you in days on market.

See The Listing Line Start free

A Market Brief on one area costs nothing. No report here values a property.

Your first price is the whole game.