The $50K Pricing Mistake That Costs Sellers Way More

Short answer: The pricing mistake that costs LA sellers the most is starting above what recent sales support and cutting the price later. An overpriced home sits, buyers start asking what's wrong with it, and the final price often ends up lower than if it had been priced right on day one. The first few weeks on the market are when buyer interest is highest, and you only get them once.

Most sellers think pricing high gives them room to negotiate. In theory, that sounds reasonable. In practice, it costs you far more than the difference between your original asking price and what you eventually accept.

Here's why.

You miss the best buyers

When your home launches, there's a pool of buyers who've been watching the market and waiting. They have alerts set up. They know the comparables. They're ready to move.

That first week, you have their full attention. If your home is priced correctly and presents well, you'll have showings booked before the weekend. Those buyers are serious, qualified, and comparing you against everything else that's active.

If you're priced fifteen percent above market, those buyers see it immediately and move on. They don't come back with the same enthusiasm when you reduce the price three weeks later. By then they've seen other homes, made other offers. You've lost your moment.

You accumulate days on market

Every day your home sits, it loses a bit of perceived value. Buyers start wondering why nobody else wanted it. Was there something wrong with the inspection? Is there an issue with the street? Are the neighbors difficult?

The longer it sits, the more negotiating leverage shifts to buyers. A home that's been on market for 45 days will attract offers well below asking simply because buyers know the seller is getting uncomfortable. The sellers I've had the hardest conversations with are the ones who came in at a price that felt right emotionally and then watched the listing go quiet. The longer a home sits, the more buyers assume something is wrong with it. Getting the price right the first time is almost always better than hoping the market catches up.

If you'd priced it correctly from the beginning, you'd have been under contract in two weeks at a higher net price.

You end up reducing anyway

Almost no one who overprices their home ends up selling at that price. What happens is a series of reductions over weeks or months, each one signaling to the market that the seller is becoming more motivated.

The problem is that each reduction gets less effective. The first one gets attention. The second makes buyers wonder why it didn't sell after the first cut. The third makes you look stuck.

If you'd started at the price you eventually accept after three reductions, you'd have sold faster, with less stress, and likely for more money, because you wouldn't have accumulated weeks of market stigma.

The math of overpricing

Let's say your home is worth $1.5M based on recent comparable sales. You list at $1.65M because your agent suggests testing the market, or because you want room to negotiate.

You sit for three weeks with minimal showings. You reduce to $1.6M. Another two weeks pass. You reduce to $1.55M. At this point, buyers are offering $1.45M because they can see you're stuck.

If you'd listed at $1.5M from the beginning, you'd have had multiple offers in week one and likely closed at $1.52M or $1.53M because competition drives prices up, not extended time on market.

The difference between selling at around $1.52M in week one and $1.45M after two months is roughly $70K. Getting the pricing wrong from the start is an expensive lesson.

How to price correctly

Pull the last 60 days of closed sales in your neighborhood. Not list prices. Actual sale prices. Look at price per square foot, condition, lot size, school boundaries, and street quality.

Be honest about where your home sits relative to those comparables. Pricing is not about what you need, what you paid, or what your neighbor got three years ago. It's about what a buyer will pay today based on current market conditions.

If you want an honest pricing assessment based on real data rather than optimistic projections, I'm happy to walk through it with you.

A few questions I get about pricing a home to sell

How do I know if my house is overpriced?

The market tells you pretty quickly. If you're getting plenty of showings but no offers, buyers like the house and not the price. If you're getting very few showings at all, the price is probably keeping people from booking a visit, and that's the harder one to fix.

When should I reduce my asking price?

There's no fixed rule, but I look hard at the feedback after the first two or three weekends. For a sense of pace, Redfin showed a median of about 48 days on market in Studio City in early October 2026, so if you're well past that with little interest, the price is usually the issue. One clear reduction tends to work better than a string of small ones.

Should I price low to start a bidding war?

It can work when inventory is tight and the house is easy to love, but it's a real risk if only one buyer shows up. In Studio City in early October 2026, Redfin had homes selling for about 1% under list price on average, which isn't a frenzy. I'd rather price close to the true value and let good marketing do the work.

Does it matter if I list at $2,050,000 instead of $1,995,000?

It can matter more than people expect. Buyers search the portals with price filters, and a lot of them set round numbers like $2 million as their ceiling. Price just over one of those lines and you can drop out of a whole group of searches, so I always look at where your buyers are likely to be searching before we pick the number.

Keep reading: What Is My Home Worth in Studio City?, Why Your Home Didn't Sell the First Time and Why Zillow Estimates Mislead Sellers.

Thinking about selling? Here's how I work with sellers.

Anj Catalano, The Agency  |  310.404.6955  |  hello@anjinla.com