Alternative title:  how to avoid 9-think.  REALTORS think in 9s ($879,900, $899,990, etc.), except Angus, who likes to think in 812s.   Real people, however, think in round numbers, generally zeros and fives ($890,000, $900,000, $875,000, etc.).  Since we all know now that most buyers first look for properties on the internet, and that about a quarter of them actually first find the home they buy online (before their agent shows it to them), we need to think like buyers just a little more when listing homes. 

I'm quite enamored with Broker Bryant's range pricing strategy and it's results.  One thing the odd sale price misses, but the range pricing can be enhanced by, is bracketing.  This very effectively targets buyers, and generally even their agents.  I must admit that at first I thought range pricing meant bracketing (oops!).  As a seller, with a less-than-creative REALTOR (actually two before I listed it myself) its seemed strange that I came up with bracketing idea myself and that my listing agent had no idea what I was saying when I first outlined it. 

Here's how it works.  Pretend you're Mr. Need A. Home and you're doing your internet research.  The search pages you're on want to know what the high and low price points are.  Do they ask you for $349,900 to $369,900 or $350,000 to $370,000?  (It's the latter for those that haven't looked on these sites.)  For bigger values, they start putting in bigger breaks, like $25,000 increments instead of $10,000 (really high values start getting into $50,000 and $100,000, or even $250,000 jumps).  Even when they let the consumer enter their own number, I know there is only one person that enters $359,812, everyone else uses $360,000.  If they really understood REALTORS well, they'd enter a search string range of something like $349,900 to $370,000, but that's putting too much responsibility on the consuming public to play phsychoanalist to the industry. 

What's funny is that most agents don't even account for the 9 phenomenon in their own search strings, and still put in the same $350,000 to $370,000, or $375,000, just like their clients ask (and do themselves).  Smart REALTORS, of course, drop down to the lower 9 on the bottom end.

Now, if you're Sella Lot, REALTOR, you might be caught up in the way you were always taught to list houses - like the guys that sell cars (sad parallel).  $29,999!  (yes, that's the car, by the way, unless you're in a really depressed housing market and selling an outhouse.)  It's more like $299,900 for the house.  Why not $300,000?  Because that's how you were told to do it by Mrs. Longinthetooth that used to mentor you before this internet age came about. 

Why so much hassle?  Just make it easy on everyone, AND GET YOUR LISTING SEEN BY MORE PEOPLE by bracketing.  Always using the $xxx,000 ending helps, but better still, make it at an even $10,000 or $25,000 bracket break point (depending on how pricey the home is).  This gets your listing to come up on the top and bottom end of searches, as well as in the middle.  If you're listing is $549,900 it will come up for those searching $525,000 to $550,000, but won't show up for those looking in the $550,000 to $575,000 range.  Sad, since that $100 difference just cost you the chance to get double the exposure.  What's worse is that the exposure you lose is the one that's worth the most - being the lowest price in the higher search range, THE VERY FIRST ONE THEY WOULD SEE (if only you avoided 9-think and instead used bracketing)! 

Now put it all together, range price the listing, but not from $349,900 to $369,900, range price it from $350,000 to $370,000 (with all the appropriate comments Bryant notes in his posts) and watch it sell in half the time!  Explain this strategy well to a seller and you'll look a lot smarter than the guys you are competing with for the listing that are all going off the cliff like lemmings with their unthought out 9-think.  That will get you more listings, too, as well as move them faster.