3 Ways to Price Your Home (and the One That Leads to Price Cuts)

Nobody wants to hear the words “price reduction.” Not sellers, and honestly, not agents either. But how you price your house on day one decides whether you’ll ever need one.

When I sit down with a seller, we talk a lot about pricing. And it really comes down to three models. One of them used to work great and doesn’t anymore. One of them almost always ends in price cuts. And the one that works best right now is usually the one sellers like the least.

A. Auction Style

Auction style means we list the house a little under what we think it’s actually worth, get a bunch of buyers in the door at once, and let them push the price past what we thought we’d get.

Back in 2021, that wasn’t a bad plan. In September 2021, there were only about 2,000 homes for sale in the whole Louisville area. The typical home that sold went under contract in about 5 days. Buyers had nothing to choose from, and about 4 out of every 10 homes sold for more than the original asking price.

Today there are about 4,400 homes for sale. That’s more than double. And this year, fewer than 2 out of 10 homes have sold over asking.

Buyers have options now. If you price under value hoping for a bidding war, there’s a real chance you get one offer, or none, and your “low” price becomes your actual price. Bidding wars still happen, but you can’t count on one anymore.

B. Aspirational

Aspirational pricing is the “let’s leave ourselves some room to negotiate” price. And I get it. Nobody wants to leave money on the table.

But with all those other homes on the market, buyers just compare. Your house looks overpriced next to the one down the street, so they skip it. Weeks go by. So we cut a little. Then a little more. And by the time we get to the right price, the house has been sitting so long that buyers start asking, “What’s wrong with it?”

Here’s what the numbers say. I pulled every residential sale in the Greater Louisville MLS so far this year:

• No price cuts: went under contract in a median of 8 days and sold for 100% of the original asking price.
• One cut: 44 days, and sold for about 5% below the original price.
• Two cuts: 70 days, about 7% below.
• Three or more cuts: 102 days, about 10% below. On a $350,000 house, that’s $35,000.

Every extra cut adds about a month on the market and takes a few more points off the final price.

And right now, 47% of the homes for sale in Louisville have already had a price cut. About 1 in 10 have been cut three or more times. Those are the aspirational listings. They’re priced for the market the seller wants, not the one we have.

That’s the trap. Leaving room to negotiate usually leaves you with less.

C. Market Based

Market based pricing is the one I push for. We look at the current market, and I mean right now. What sold six months ago might not even matter anymore. We look at what just sold, what’s under contract, and what you’re up against today. Then we price it for what it’s worth today. Not what it would have gotten in 2021, and not what we hope it’s worth.

Here’s why that matters: almost half of the homes sold in Louisville this year (47%) went under contract in their first two weeks, and those homes typically sold for their full asking price.

Your first two weeks are when every buyer looking in your price range sees your house as new. Price it right, and that’s when you get your best offer.

This Market Isn’t Crashing. It’s Normal.

The number of homes for sale in Louisville is right around where it was in 2019, before COVID. The typical home that sold this year still went under contract in about 17 days. The homes priced for today are selling. A lot of the ones sitting are priced for a market that doesn’t exist anymore.

The Tip

If you’re about to list

• Price for today’s market. Use what just sold, what’s under contract, and what you’re competing against right now, not last year’s comps.
• Make the first two weeks count. That’s when you get the most attention. Have the house ready, the photos done, and the price right on day one.
• Don’t count on a bidding war. Underpricing in a market with this many choices can leave you with one offer at your low price.

If you’re already sitting

• Cut once, and cut enough to matter. A real price cut sends an alert to every buyer with a saved search, so it puts your house back in front of people who already passed on it.
• Skip the little cuts. Every price change shows up online. Five small cuts don’t say “good deal.” They say nobody wants your house.
• Listen to the market. If you’re getting showings but no offers, or not many showings at all, the price is usually the problem.

Just the Tip Tuesday is my weekly series breaking down real-world real estate situations, negotiation strategies, contracts, and lessons I've learned over more than a decade in the business. Sales, days-to-contract, sale-to-list, and price-reduction figures are from the Greater Louisville MLS (closed residential sales January 1 through October 5 of each year, plus active residential listings as of October 6, 2026). Days are measured from the original list date to the contract date. Price cuts are counted from MLS price history; listings withdrawn and relisted under a new MLS number restart their count, so these figures may run slightly low. Only homes that sold are included in the sale figures, so expired and withdrawn listings are not counted. The $35,000 figure is an illustration based on the 10% median. Homes-for-sale counts are Realtor.com data for the Louisville metro via FRED.