What it really takes to sell a house here

The first two weeks decide almost everything

Your house gets one launch. The buyers who have been watching this price band, in these towns, with alerts already set, all see it in the first few days. That is the largest and most motivated audience your house will ever have, and you get one shot at it.

Price it right and that audience competes. Price it high and that same audience passes, and what is left afterward is the slow trickle of new buyers entering the market — a much weaker pool, looking at a listing that now has age on it. Every price cut after that is negotiating against yourself in public.

What actually moves the number

• Price strategy, not price optimism. Where you sit relative to the search brackets buyers actually use determines how many people ever see the listing at all.
• Photos, at the right tier for the house. Ninety-six percent of buyers start online. The photos are the showing before the showing.
• Condition items that buyers price, not the ones sellers worry about. There is a short list that returns multiples here and a long list that returns nothing.
• Timing to market. Being ready when the photos land instead of two weeks after.

One thing I do differently

My listing agreement has no handcuffs. If at any point you feel I am not doing the job I promised you, you can end it and we part as friends. I would rather earn the listing every week than trap you in a contract with someone you have stopped trusting.

I am also not the right agent for everybody. If you want someone who will agree with your price and figure it out later, that is a real service and other people provide it well. If you want someone who will tell you the truth about your house and then go get you the best number the market will actually pay, that is what I do.