A seller near Lake Murray asked me last month why I wanted to list their house at $999,000 instead of $1,015,000. A house a few doors down had closed for a little over a million in the spring. They felt like I was giving away money before we'd even started.
It's a fair question, and here's how I answered it.
Nearly every buyer finds homes through a search filter, whether that's Zillow, Redfin, or the portal their agent set up for them. Almost nobody types $1,015,000 as their max. They type $1,000,000. At $1,015,000, your house doesn't show up for the people who capped their search at a million, even though plenty of them could stretch $15,000 without blinking. They just never see it.
This is a real issue in La Mesa right now. A lot of the 1950s ranch homes around Lake Murray sit right on that million-dollar line, so the pricing decision can make or break the first weekend.
I know some agents will tell you to list high so you have "room to negotiate." I think that's backwards. Room to negotiate only helps if buyers show up. A high list price brings in fewer of them, and the ones who do come know they have leverage. I'd rather have three buyers competing for your house at $999,000 than one buyer working you down from $1,015,000.
The search filter matters for more than price, too. Bedrooms work the same way. A buyer who filters for three bedrooms won't see a house listed as two plus an office. So if that office has a closet and a window that meets egress, list it as a bedroom.
The flip side matters just as much. If your third bedroom is a garage conversion that never got permitted, don't call it a bedroom. You'll pick up a few extra views, and then the buyer's agent pulls the permit history during escrow. Now you're renegotiating with someone who feels misled, and that costs you more than the extra views ever got you.
When we sit down to price your home, I'll bring the comps. I'll also bring the search brackets, because what a house is worth and where it shows up aren't the same question. Your neighbor's sale tells us what one buyer paid. It doesn't tell us how many buyers you'll actually reach.
So before we argue about the number, let's look at the filters buyers are actually using.