How to Maximize Profit When Selling Your Home in the Seattle Area: The Three P’s

Selling your home for the most money requires three things: proper pricing, perfect preparation, and professional promotion.

There is nothing more important than proper pricing.

Less is more.

Your home may be worth more than you think. But sometimes that means listing it for less. Sellers often list their homes for what they think they’re “actually worth” and hope to find a buyer who agrees. If it doesn’t sell, they drop the price and start over again, etc., reducing their potential profit each time.

Right now in the Greater Seattle area, savvy agents are listing homes at slightly lower than expected prices in order to generate multiple offers. In our experience, this tends to yield a higher final sale price than the traditional “max value, wait and see” approach.

Let’s check out some examples.

Example #1: Phinney Ridge House Sells for More

We recently listed a home in Phinney Ridge for ~$1,250,000. We ended up with multiple offers and the home sold for a whopping $1,362,000. If we had listed the home for $1,350,000, there is a very good chance we would have received only one offer, which would have been at or below list price. There’s also a solid chance we would have received no offers and had to drop the price to $1,300,000. This would have cost our clients $12,000 minimum, possibly more. How do we know? Let’s take a look at example #2.

Example #2: The Overpricing Dilemma

When a home is priced at the top of its range, buyers will look for any excuse to avoid writing an offer.

We listed this Greenwood craftsman home for ~$1,300,000, exactly what we thought it was worth. It backfired. The house ended up sitting on the market for several weeks at $1,300,000. Many buyers liked the house, but no one wanted to put in an offer. Some thought the house was a bit too quirky. Others wanted a fenced backyard. Some wished it had been just a few blocks south. Everyone had an excuse.

First lesson: when a home is priced at the top of its range, buyers will look for any excuse to not write an offer.

We ended up dropping the price to $1,250,000. Within a week we solicited not one, but three good offers and ended up selling the home for $1,265,000 with no major contingencies. Buyers suddenly loved everything about the home and were willing to look past the drawbacks.

Second lesson: when homes are priced properly, buyers will fight for a home and look past its flaws.

If we had swallowed our pride and listed the home for $1,250,000 from the get-go, perhaps we would have gotten multiple quick offers and escalated to $1,265,000 or higher, saving the sellers time and money.

Buyer psychology: getting the deal

Buyers are just like you. They love a deal. They also hate overpaying. That’s why buyers are more apt to compete for a reasonably priced home than offer on one priced bang-on market value. The lower priced home looks like a deal, even if the buyer gives up more for it in the end. But seller beware, there is a limit to how far you SHOULD take the “underpricing” tactic.

When homes are priced properly, buyers will find reasons to love it.

If you price a home too low, you risk triggering a buyer’s doubts and fears about overpaying for a house. In example #1 above, had we listed the Phinney Ridge home at $1,150,000 instead of $1,250,000, two things would likely have happened. First, we would have received multiple offers from lower budget buyers. Second, the more deep pocketed buyers would have hesitated to offer max price for the home ($1,362,000). Why? Because nobody wants to pay $200,000+ over list price! Paying that much above asking just feels bad, and it makes people doubt whether the home is really worth it.

Had we priced the Phinney Ridge home from Example #1 at $1,150,000, we may have received offers of around $1,300,000 to $1,325,000. We definitely would not have received offers above $1,362,000. Our clients probably would have gotten less money than they could have on the deal.

Pricing Pro Tip: Price low, but not too low. Aim to hit that sweet spot where buyers feel the home is a great deal without setting a psychological barrier on how much they’re willing to bid.

(Skip to the end for a tip on when not to price your home below market value).

What’s my home’s Proper Price? How real estate agents do a market analysis.

The only way to accurately estimate your home’s value is to have an expert real estate agent perform a thorough comparative market analysis (CMA). This CMA involves looking at similar homes that have sold in the area and adjusting their prices to reflect differences between those homes and yours. They then take a weighted average of the adjusted prices and arrive at the likely value range for your home. If the math is right, that value range should indicate approximately where you should price your home.

Advice for home sellers in the Seattle and Bellevue area

As of now, we do recommend leaning toward the lower end of your CMA price range, at least if you are selling your home in the Seattle area. However, please defer to your trusted real estate agent when making the final decision. If you disagree with your agent, remember that you get the last word on pricing. You can always choose to work with a different agent if you reach an impasse.

Perfect Preparation: You cannot afford to screw this up.

Preparing your home for sale is a critical step that often gets overlooked. The right preparation will make a significant difference in how buyers perceive your home and, ultimately, how much they’re willing to pay. We could talk all day about what “perfect preparation” means, but here are some hot tips to get you started.

1. Move Out Before Listing.

If at all possible, move out before putting your home on the market. This allows for a cleaner, more neutral presentation that helps potential buyers imagine themselves living in the space.

2. Don’t Scrimp on Staging.

Well-staged homes not only sell faster but for more money. A professional stager can highlight your home’s best features and downplay any shortcomings. If you spend money on anything, do it here.

3. Make Strategic Updates.

Your agent should guide you on which updates and repairs are worth doing before listing. Not all updates provide a good return on investment, so make sure you spend wisely. Your agent should be able to explain how much of a return you’ll get for the cost of any updates.

4. Timing is Everything.

Listing your home at the right time can be crucial to attracting the best offers. Avoid putting your home on the market around holidays or when there are numerous competing listings in your area. There may be additional nuance to this, so, again, defer to your agent.

Example: Kirkland Townhouse Sells for Record Price

In 2024, we listed a townhome for sale in Kirkland’s sought after Houghton neighborhood. The home was beautifully designed but lacked outdoor space and didn’t have the expansive water views of some other Kirkland townhomes. When our preferred staging company experienced a scheduling dilemma, the seller decided to go ahead and use another, more “affordable” company. They also decided to try and save money by not painting the home’s weathered exterior.

When we saw how poorly the initial listing photos looked, we made a judgment call and convinced our sellers to postpone their listing. We waited until our preferred stager was available, and used the extra time to paint the exterior of the house (and have the neighbor paint theirs as well!). The results? The home came out looking better than new. We received multiple offers and sold the home for $1,975,000. Not only was this ~$100,000 above our asking price, it was actually the highest selling price of any Kirkland townhome in the last four years!

Preparation Pro Tip: Trust your team to manage the pre-listing process efficiently. An experienced real estate team will help you navigate these preparations while maximizing your home’s appeal to potential buyers. They will also keep you on schedule.

(Here at the Get Happy at Home team, we own our own construction company. This means we control the cost and timing of pre-listing work, ensuring you don’t get screwed over by third party contractors.)

You will lose money if you don’t have Professional Promotion.

The final key to selling your home for the most money is Professional Promotion. In today’s competitive market, simply listing your home on the MLS is not enough. A skilled real estate agent goes above and beyond to market your home effectively, ensuring maximum exposure and attracting serious buyers. Here are some critical elements that fall under professional promotion.

Marketing Skills

A skilled agent knows how to craft compelling marketing materials that highlight your home’s strengths while downplaying any less desirable features. For example, if your home is near a major road, a good agent can recontextualize this as offering quick access to key routes for convenience. The goal is to ensure buyers are aware of potential drawbacks but also help them look past these elements (without being patronizing or disingenuous). This goes beyond just writing polished marketing remarks for online listings; it also involves strategic conversations with buyer agents, ensuring that any perceived downsides are reframed positively when discussed with potential buyers.

Great photos sell houses

Great listing photos are second only to staging when it comes to maximizing your home’s positive impression on buyers. A great listing agent will provide you with great photos (they usually pay for this) and great photos sell houses. For the love of all that is good in the world, please, please, please do not use cell phone photos or any other cheapo photo solution. You will lose money and regret it if you do.

Open Houses

Always have open houses. While they may not directly sell the home, open houses give potential buyers more time to explore the space and emotionally connect with it. Spending more time in the home increases the likelihood of them falling in love with it, making them more inclined to submit competitive offers. Open houses also create an opportunity for your agent to meet buyers and gain insights into what features they find most appealing, which can be valuable in negotiations.

Pre-Inspections and Transparency

One of the most effective ways to streamline your sale is by allowing pre-inspections. Encouraging buyers to conduct inspections before submitting offers can help you avoid post-agreement contingencies and reduce the risk of deals falling through. Buyers don’t like surprises, so it’s vital to disclose all known issues with your home upfront. The unknown is far scarier to buyers than any known defect.

Consider providing a top-notch inspection report from a reputable inspector before listing your home. This proactive approach helps set the right expectations for buyers, who will feel more confident in your home’s condition. Fixing what you can efficiently ahead of time shows that you are a diligent and caring homeowner, which builds trust. Buyers feel better about purchasing a home from someone who takes care of their property, and they are more likely to pay top dollar when they feel reassured.

Effective Negotiation and Closing Support

Promotion doesn’t end with marketing. The best agents are skilled negotiators who advocate for your best interests throughout the sale process. They build relationships with buyer agents, earning a reputation for being honest and easy to work with. For instance, we once sold a very large, old craftsman home in Queen Anne that needed a top-to-bottom remodel. Our client didn’t have the funds for a full renovation, but with a modest budget of $65,000, we managed to add ~$200,000 in value to the home just by fixing it’s major flaws. Despite the improvements, we only received two offers. However, by leveraging our relationship with one of the buyer’s agents and using our knowledge of their buyer’s specific needs, we were able to drive up their offer and increase the final sale price of the home by almost $40,000.

Promotion Pro Tip: Your agent should be more than just a marketer—they should be a skilled negotiator and a problem-solver who will keep the transaction on track and help you navigate any bumps in the road during the closing process.

BONUS KNOWLEDGE NUGGET! What’s my home worth?

Nearly every real estate agent touts some online calculator or web tool that purports to tell you what your home is worth. Pro tip: these tools and calculators will not tell you what your home is worth, nor will they tell you how to get the most money for the sale of your home. They are a lead generation machine, used by real estate agents to lock you into an email list in the hopes you will one day sit down with them. Once they’ve got you in the room, the odds of them landing your business go up dramatically, regardless of whether they are actually the best agents to sell your house.

The only way to know for certain what your home is worth is to put it on the market. The best way to estimate this market price is an individualized comparative market analysis (CMA) compiled by a local real estate expert. Don’t give in to the online tools. And yes, this includes things like Zillow’s Zestimate and Redfin’s price estimates.

DOUBLE BONUS KNOWLEDGE NUGGET!! Pricing is not one size fits all.

In some cases—like with truly unique homes, properties with certain drawbacks, or homes in a buyer-friendly market—pricing higher may be the better strategy. For unique homes, you may be banking on that one buyer who loves the home and is willing to pay a premium for it. In buyer-friendly markets, pricing closer to the middle of the value range could help optimize offers by minimizing the risk of receiving none or only a single, lower offer.

Would you like to know more?

If you have questions about how to sell your home for the most money, or anything else having to do with Seattle real estate, do not hesitate to reach out to me and the team directly, HERE!

About Ryan

Ryan attended law school at the University of Washington. He obtained his WSBA bar license in 2018 and practiced law in Washington for three years prior to joining Get Happy at Home.