The trouble with pricing

Like I've said before, in this market, pricing IS marketing, pricing IS strategy, pricing is not science.

You can't just look up some comps or jump on zillow decide what your house is "worth" and expect to get that. It just doesn't work that way. It actually never did. When prices were going up and property was hot, this kind of a tactic worked because there was such an eagerness to buy whatever was available. There was a lack of supply and an excess of demand. So any bad pricing was covered up by the seller's market.

Things are different now (see this recent L.A. Times story).

Now, you've got to look at much more than "the comps." Some of the things I look at include things like buyer activity at different price levels within a particular neighborhood. If we know, at what level more buyers are available, we may decide to price closer to that level. If we have a property that's priced substantially above what people are willing to pay in a particular neighborhood, we may have to expand the marketing campaign to take on some special strategies. Both strategies are about going where the buyers are. Because there's a lot fewer of them.