The "one dollar" mistake

When home owners think about where to price home they face a difficult question: Is it better to list your home for sale at $699,999 or is it better to list at $700,000?

The correct answer might seem counter-intuitive since we live in a world where you can't find anything priced at two dollars but there are countless products priced at $1.99. A dollar ninety nine sounds much cheaper even though it is basically the same price. Right? 

Now lets think about the behavior of buyers shopping for homes on search portals like Zillow. People don't look at every house on the market. They look at houses in their search parameters. A common search might be 4+ bedrooms, 3+ bathrooms, priced between 450K and 500K. Or maybe the same search but between the prices of 500K and 600K. These price brackets are capped with whole numbers. 

If you price at $699,999, you showed up in only one of the two above searches. Maybe this price is at the low end of the buyer's search and maybe it is at the high end. If you price at $700,000, you show up in both. This is because searches include the low search field and the high search field. Pricing on the edge of any price bracket (5K, 10K, 25K, 50K, 100K, 1M) will allow the listing to show up in more search results. 

This is true for a buyer searching any search portal. It is also true for agents searching the Multiple Listing Service. 

Modern real estate marketing is an online marketing game. More page views on all media=more interested buyers=more showings=more offers=higher probability of a multiple offer scenario=more money. 

If you are thinking about where to price, I might recommend against $699,999.