What Do Las Vegas Sellers Get Wrong About Pricing Their Home?

Price is the one decision that matters more than everything else you do when you sell. More than the photos, more than the open houses, more than the marketing. A well-marketed house at the wrong price still sits.

And it is the decision sellers most often get wrong, usually for understandable reasons.

Here are the mistakes I see most, and what I would do instead.

This is the most common one with move-up families, and it makes complete sense.

You have found the next house, or you know what it will cost. You work backward: we need this much out of our current place to make the next one work. That becomes the list price.

The problem is that buyers do not know what you need, and they would not care if they did. They know what similar houses around you have sold for. Your house is worth what the market says, not what the next move requires.

If the number the market supports does not get you to the next house, it is much better to know that now, before you list, than after three months and two price cuts.

Those estimates are a reasonable starting point for curiosity. They are not a price.

They cannot see inside your house. They do not know the kitchen was redone or that the roof is original. They do not know your street backs up to a busy road, or that your lot is the one everyone on the block wants. They are averaging, and your house is not average in either direction.

“We paid this, then we spent that on the backyard and the kitchen, so it has to be worth at least the total.”

It does not work that way, and it is hard to hear. Improvements rarely come back dollar for dollar, and some of the most expensive ones come back the least. What Home Improvements Actually Pay You Back When You Sell?

What you paid is history. What it is worth is today.

Your neighbor listed at a number. That tells you what your neighbor hoped for. It does not tell you what their house sold for, and it might not have sold at all.

What matters is recent sales. Similar houses, close by, that actually closed. A house that is still for sale is not a comparison. It is your competition.

This one sounds smart, and in a market with more buyers than houses it can work.

That is not the market the valley is in right now. Homes around here are taking longer to sell than they were a couple of years ago, and in this market a house priced to leave room does not get negotiated down. It gets skipped.

Buyers filter their searches by price. A house priced too high does not show up for the buyers who would actually pay what it is worth. It shows up for buyers shopping in a higher range, who compare it to better houses and move on.

And the first two weeks, the best attention your house will ever get, go by while it is being ignored. Why the First Two Weeks on the Market Decide How Your Las Vegas Home Sells

This is the one that costs sellers the most, and it is the one I would most want you to know about before you interview anybody.

When you talk to three agents, you will probably get three different prices. It is natural to like the highest one. It feels like that agent believes in your house more.

Sometimes that is true. But sometimes the high number is how the listing gets won, and the plan is to bring the price down later, after the paperwork is signed and the house has sat for a month.

By then it is not a new listing. It is a reduced listing that has been sitting, which is the hardest place to sell from.

So when an agent gives you a number, ask them to show you the sales behind it. Similar houses, nearby, recently closed. If they can walk you through why, the number is worth something. If they cannot, it is a sales pitch.

If the price is wrong, one meaningful correction does more than a series of small ones.

Small reductions every couple of weeks tell buyers two things: you are motivated, and they should wait for the next one. Each cut gets less attention than the last. The house ends up selling for less than it would have if it had been priced right on day one.

The first conversation I have with any seller is about what the house is actually worth. Not the number that will feel good, the number that will work.

I will give you one price and show you exactly why: the recent sales I used, how your house compares to each one, and what I adjusted for. If you want to see it, I will also show you what the top of the range would look like and what it risks, and what pricing under the range would do and what it costs you.

But you asked me what I would do, so I will tell you. I will not hand you three numbers and leave you to pick.

Sometimes that number is higher than you expected. Sometimes it is lower. Either way, it is the real number, and you will have it before we list, not three weeks after.

Send me your address.

Call 702-881-6562 or email JArendt658@gmail.com. I will tell you what I think your house is actually worth, which recent sales I based that on, and how I would price it if it were mine. If the number is lower than you were hoping, you will hear that from me before you list.

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John Arendt, Realtor, has sold homes across the Las Vegas valley for 20 years, in Henderson, Summerlin, Southern Highlands, Anthem, Boulder City and North Las Vegas.