List Smart: Price Below Market to Ignite Bidding Wars and Maximize Your Sale
PART 1 What if the price you list at has almost nothing to do with the price you sell for? Most owners assume they're the same number. On Valle Vista they were 23% apart, and that gap is exactly why it sold the way it did. 馃憖 If you own in Berkeley, Oakland, Piedmont, Albany or Kensington, this one's worth reading. This property is in the Grand Lake area of Oakland. Just under 2,000 square feet. Three baths, three stories, converted basement. Worth around $1.45 million. We listed it well below that on purpose. That's the first lesson, and it's where I see the most money left on the table. In this area the list price isn't your valuation. It's your invitation. It decides how many people walk through your door on Sunday. So ask yourself this. Would you rather be right about your number, or have the whole neighborhood competing for it? List at the number you actually want and you get a quiet open house. A few people wandering through. One offer if you're lucky. We priced Valle Vista to pull traffic. About 80 groups came through over two weekends. 馃毆 Then two offers. But two is all it takes, because now they're bidding against each other instead of negotiating against you. At $1.45 I don't believe we'd have seen either one. 鈿栵笍 Now, this matters. It works in Grand Lake. It does not work everywhere. East Oakland is a different market entirely and pricing that way there would cost you. The right move changes block to block. The second lesson is bedrooms. Do you actually know how many legal bedrooms you have? One here had no closet, so it wasn't obvious whether it counted. 馃搻 The converted basement was its own issue. Really nice space, but we couldn't put it in the advertised square footage. Buyers love a space like that. Just don't expect it valued the same as the rest of the property. 馃彔 Selling this year? Call me before you settle on a number. Tell me your street and I'll tell you exactly how I'd price it. Oliver Davis 路 Fast Real Estate / eXp Realty 馃摓 628-259-8398 | oliver@soldbyod.com
August 28, 2026