Katie got into real estate in 2013, starting on the title and escrow side, where she learned how deals actually come together, the fine print, the timelines, and the small things that can make or break a transaction.

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Sellers usually call me about the marketing. Six weeks in, no offers, and they want to know whether we should reshoot the photos or push harder on social.

The marketing is almost never the problem. The photos were fine, the house showed fine, and buyers knew it was there. What went wrong happened on day one, in the conversation about the list price, and by week six it has had six weeks to work on them.

Right now a house does one of two things. It goes under contract fast, sometimes with more than one buyer in play, or it sits. There isn’t much in the middle anymore, and sellers tend to chalk that up to luck.

Buyers shop in price ranges. Nobody goes looking for your address. They pick a ceiling, they pick a floor, and they scroll whatever falls between. If the honest range for your house tops out near $530,000 and we list at $550,000, your house doesn’t look a little expensive to those buyers. It doesn’t look like anything. It never shows up next to the homes it should be beating, and the person who would have loved it never finds out it exists. Sellers can’t see that part from the inside. It’s why some of the best agents around here will pass on a listing instead of taking it and hoping.

Competition is what moves the number. Put that same house on at $525,000 and the whole thing changes shape. More people come through. Buyers start to suspect they might be getting something, so they quit negotiating against you and start worrying about each other. That is the entire trick. A house priced a touch under often closes above where the seller wanted to land in the first place, because two or three people decided they wanted it. Start at the ceiling, and you’ve taken away the only thing that makes buyers move.

The worry I hear is always the same one. What if we go lower and it just sells lower?

“The price you launch at decides whether you're gone in a weekend or sitting for months.”

Right pricing keeps your options open. A well-priced house that still doesn’t sell has told you something true, and it told you in three weeks rather than five months. You can adjust, or step back and try again in spring. The overpriced version of those same weeks costs you mortgage payments, a listing that’s gone stale, and the price cut you make in the end anyway. Sitting also signals to buyers that you’re motivated, which is when offers well under asking start showing up.

Online estimates don’t know your house. An algorithm has no idea you redid the kitchen, or that the comp three streets over backs onto a busy road. The tools are a reasonable place to start. They are not a valuation, and an agent analysis or a professional appraisal is considerably more accurate. If you want a number that reflects what’s actually happening on your street, start with the local sales data instead.

The first two weeks matter most. A listing gets the most attention it will ever get right after it goes live, when everyone watching that price range finally sees something new. Spend that window at the wrong number, and the buyers most likely to pay you well have already looked and moved on. Same reason getting the house ready before it goes live matters, and the same reason it’s worth knowing which projects actually return money and which ones just cost you.

Going low isn’t the point. The point is picking a number that gets a reaction and then letting the reaction do the work. The alternative is months of payments on a house you’ve already finished. It ends in a sale for less than honesty in week one would have brought you.

One question is worth sitting with before you sign a listing agreement. Do you want buyers bidding on your house in its first week, or would you rather spend a season waiting for the market to notice it?

Anyone thinking about selling in Oregon deserves that conversation honestly, with real numbers, before the listing ever goes live.

Call or text me at 503-621-6832, email me at katie@movewithdewitt.com, or visit movewithdewitt.com.

Bring me your address and your timeline, and I’ll give you an honest read on what it will actually sell for.