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How much does a ‘for sale’ home’s list price matter?

March 25, 2011 6:19 am

Answer: a lot … it’s the psychological effect called anchoring.

For example, researchers asked both professional real estate agents and man-off-the-street amateurs to predict the final selling price of a house.

They were all told that the current tax appraisal value of the house was $135,000.

Then, each respondent was told that the house was listed in one of four prices — ranging from $119,900 to $149,900.

The researchers found a clear positive correlation between list prices and predicted sale prices.

The amateur is responded more to the differences in list prices and the professionals — but even the pros and a $15,000 spread that can only be attributed to the differences in the list prices.

Bottom line: if you’re selling a home beach for the sky with your list price; if you’re buying a home try to ignore the list price and focus on more fundamental values like tax assessments and comparable sales

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Source: Priceless, William Poundstone, Hill and Wang Books, 2010

Posted by Ken Homa

Categories: Behavioral Economics, Mktg - Pricing

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2 Responses to “How much does a ‘for sale’ home’s list price matter?”

  1. […] How much does a 'for sale' home's list price matter? « The Homa Files […]

    By A Hire Love on April 9, 2011 at 10:00 pm

  2. […] How much does a 'for sale' home's list price matter? « The Homa Files […]

    By This Dame for Hire on April 23, 2011 at 4:28 pm

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