Home Values & Pricing

How do I know if my home is overpriced?

By Steve Lockhart

The short answer

Knowing that a home is overpriced is not usually the hard part, accepting it is. But first let us see what the market data, the behavior, and the clock can teach.

Full answer

Knowing that a home is overpriced is not usually the hard part, accepting it is. But first let us see what the market data, the behavior, and the clock can teach.

The comps are the base. Gather the homes most like yours that sold in the last few months, adjust for the differences, and see where the entire range lands relative to your ask. If your number is parked above the defensible top of that range, it is priced too high, and no amount of hope changes the sold data. Equals the edge of property as any emotional pricing, and it does not move the app.

The behavior is the honest sensor. A fresh listing gets the most eyes in its first weeks: the feed hits the buyers, the agents schedule, and the market votes with attention. A well-priced home in a normal window draws a showing and offer quickly. An overpriced home goes quiet. Buyers in that price band filter it out, agents scroll past it, and week after week the silence becomes the answer.

And the clock turns it expensive: overpricing eats its own freshness. As the days on market grow, buyers start reading age into the price, and offers, when they come, arrive to pay the discount. A home that started $20k over will often finish well below where an honest price would have landed after years of wear of stale date.

There is also an appraiser in the background: any financed offer brings the lender's appraisal, and appraisers read the same comps. A listing above the support may draw a contract, then the app craters, and the negotiator slides (or the deal dies). The price that is not supported costs equity twice: once in time and once in the appraisal.

So ask the three questions: what do the current comps support, how does this home show and price against the catalogs in the band, and how many weeks do you want to learn this answer? A good agent will give you the evidence before you list, and again at day 20, and adjust, because the price that works is the price the market agrees with.

Go a little deeper

Frequently asked

Questions homeowners often follow up on

What is the first sign the price is wrong?

Slow showings in the first two weeks, the freshness window. Listings in the correct band get tours and questions. When the interest does not match the photos and position, the price is the first suspect, and a fresh comparison of sold homes is the quickest test.

Can my agent still be overpriced?

Agents occasionally list high to win the assignment or to satisfy a seller's hope, but the market does not care. The tested number is the range from real sales. Ask each agent to show you the sold comps, not the ballpark version. The evidence should look the same for every one of them.

Is it better to start high and reduce later?

Rarely. The first weeks are your strongest stage. Starting high trades the best exposure for a hope, and the market, once fatigued, tends to correct slow and low. There are legit mirrors for a few properties, but a normal Las Vegas home is better priced right on day one.

The Lockhart Method

Your Home | My Strategy | Proven Results

My strategy: run the test before you list, not after the first quiet month. I bring the full comp set and the adjustments, we agree on the likely range, we set the price in it, and we set a check in at day 20. When the market whispers, we answer within days, not watched in a long stale gallery of for-sale signs.

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