How to Price Your Home to Sell
3 min read · Last updated 2026-10-08
Price your home from what similar homes sold for, then list it just under a round number. Homes listed just below a round number, like $199,000 instead of $200,000, sold for roughly 2.5 to 3 percent more on average than round-priced homes, the researchers said in a 2016 Florida Atlantic University release. On a $200,000 house, that's $5,000 to $6,000. What counts is the price you sell for, not the one you list at. Cash Flow Deals can also put two written offers in front of you, and you pick.
| Your listing at a price you set | Premium offer | Cash offer | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who sets the number | You set the list price. Buyers' offers decide the sale price | A higher number you agree to, paid by a real FHA or conventional buyer through novation | Our as-is number |
| Listing and showings | Listed, with showings | Your home may be listed during the 15 business days of inspection. A licensed agent brings each buyer. Showings are scheduled ahead and take 10 to 15 minutes | No listing. One walk-through by our team |
| Inspection period | The days written into your contract | 15 business days | 15 business days |
| Closing | The date in your contract | 45 days or less, on a date you help pick | 45 days or less, on a date you help pick |
| If the buyer's financing falls through | Your contract's financing terms decide what happens next | You can still take the Cash offer | Not applicable: we're the buyer |
Price From What Sold, Not What's Listed
Decide which homes set your number before you pick one. That means homes like yours that sold, not the ones still for sale.
Our view: an asking price isn't a sale price, so your number should come from what similar homes actually sold for. Redfin's August 2026 figures show the gap. That month, 59.5% of homes sold nationwide went for less than their original asking price, by Redfin's seasonally adjusted count, and Redfin says that share has held steady for the last year and a half. On average, homes sold for 96.4% of their original list price.
Condition has to match too. Our view: buyers walk when the price doesn't fit the condition they see in person, so compare your house with sold homes in the same shape as yours, not with the one that was just redone.
Choose Your Side of the Round Number
If the sale price is what you're after, list just under the nearest round number.
Asking prices bunch up around round numbers. In a 2014 study in The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, more than 75% of the homes in the sample had a round or just-below asking price. Homes listed just below a round number were tied to the biggest discounts in negotiation, the authors found, but their higher starting prices more than offset that.
The same two researchers compared prices like $199,900 and $200,000 in a 2015 study in the Journal of Housing Research. Buyers leaned toward the just-below price. Round-priced homes sold significantly faster and at a smaller discount from list price, but the just-below price still brought the highest sale price relative to the home's underlying value. A 2016 Florida Atlantic University release says the research looked at 1,000 buyers in Virginia considering a pool of more than 370,000 listings.
So you're trading time for price. Our view: among homes like yours, the best value draws the most buyers, fastest.
Set Your Price-Cut Trigger Before You List
Decide now what a slow start will make you do. Not after the listing goes live.
Price cuts are at a four-year high. In September 2026, 20.8% of listings on Realtor.com had a price reduction, up 0.9 percentage points from September 2025. That's the highest share for any month since October 2022, and the highest for a September since 2018, in Realtor.com data that starts in July 2016. Redfin's count gives the timing: homes that went under contract in August 2026 had been listed a median of 50 days first. In the Jacksonville metro it was 68 days.
Our view: the first weeks of showings and offers are the market's verdict on your price, and few showings means your price is off next to the homes buyers do want. If it has to move, base the new price on sold homes in the same condition, not on a hunch.
Or start from a written number. Cash Flow Deals makes two written offers, and you choose between them:
1. Cash offer: our as-is number. Cash Flow Deals buys the house and closes. No listing. One walk-through by our team.
2. Premium offer: a higher number, paid by a real FHA or conventional buyer through novation. You sign with us at a number you agree to and let us bring in a buyer in our place. During the 15 business days of inspection, your home may be listed. A licensed agent brings each buyer. Showings are scheduled ahead and take 10 to 15 minutes. Your buyer signs a new contract directly with you. Their lender funds it, and title transfers once. We're paid as a separate line item on the closing statement. If that buyer's financing falls through, you can still take the Cash offer.
3. Inspection period: 15 business days on either offer.
4. Closing: 45 days or less, on a date you help pick.
Our view: the higher Premium number comes from exposure to buyers who finance with FHA and conventional loans.
Common questions
Does a just-below price only work in a hot market?
Not according to one 2014 study in The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics. Its authors found the results held in buyer's and seller's markets alike, and for new and existing homes across multiple price ranges.
Where are the most homes selling below asking?
West Palm Beach, by Redfin's count. In August 2026, 85% of homes there sold below asking price, the highest share in the U.S. Miami was next at 83%. San Francisco had the smallest share, at 30%.
Are price cuts more common in some regions?
Yes. In September 2026, price cuts were least common in the Northeast, on 15.2% of listings, and most common in the West, on 22.8%, by Realtor.com's count.
Do sellers pull their homes instead of cutting the price?
Some do. About 5.6% of homes on the market were delisted in September 2026, in line with a year earlier, by Realtor.com's count. It found no sign of a late-summer or early-fall delisting spike.
Is anything binding before I sign with you?
No. Nothing is binding until you and Cash Flow Deals both sign a written contract, and you can take it to an attorney first.