The most critical step in preparing to market a home is
                    determining the listing price. All sellers would like to
                    realize the highest possible return from their property. It is
                    obvious that pricing a property too low cannot provide the
                    highest return; it is less obvious but also true that pricing a
                    property too high will produce less than the best return. The
                    right price produces the best return.

                    Too high a price is costly because it causes a property to
                    miss its market. When a price is too high, those buyers for
                    whom the home would be right won't see the house because
                    it is out of their price range. Buyers who are in the price
                    range suggested by the asking price will not see the property
                    as a good value and will buy something else. Further, agents
                    will be reluctant to show the property, except perhaps to
                    make a competing property look like a good buy. Good
                    agents are not those who can sell overpriced homes to
                    gullible buyers; good agents are those who present to buyers
                    homes which are good, fair values.

                    Sellers often feel that they want to test the market at a high
                    price. While there may seem to be o harm in starting high
                    and lowering the price if necessary, testing the market can
                    be quite risky. A property receives its fullest exposure in the
                    first three to five weeks on the market. The best buyers for
                    any property are those choice prospects who will see a
                    property during those first weeks. If it does not appear to be
                    a good value, they will decide not to buy, and it is rare that
                    such buyers return to a property later, even if the price is
                    reduced. Thus, the seller who tests the market may turn away
                    the best of his potential market.

                    Another danger of testing the market is that the seller will
                    come to believe in what started out as an exploratory price.
                    Even when the market provides evidence that the price is
                    too high, the seller will be unwilling to reduce the price or
                    may turn down an offer that is too low relative to the asking
                    price, but is actually the best offer that will be received. In
                    an extreme example, a seller whose house was listed at
                    $600,000 turned down an early offer of $450,000; a year
                    and a half later the house sold only after the asking price
                    was reduced to $395,000.

                    Pricing a home is part art and part science. Like science, the
                    pricing should be based on evidence - the prices paid for
                    comparable properties in recent sales. However, since no
                    two homes are exactly alike, the evidence must be evaluated
                    and a judgment reached. Because each of us has a great
                    emotional attachment to our own home, the judgment of
                    professional agents who can take a detached viewpoint is
                    vital.

                    The right price produces the best return. The cost of
                    overpricing can be very high.