Exact prices are better, except when they're much, much worse

At for homes. The researchers think exact numbers are low (like Walmart) while rounded numbers are high. They’re totally wrong on one count though:

“A condo priced at say $153,122 might actually sell faster than one priced at 150”

They may be right about people’s feelings once they see the condo, but they’re 100% wrong about what is important; people and agents alike search for real estate based on fairly standardized price ranges and when you’re selling a $150,000 condo at $153,000 price tag (in a non-Seattle market where condos cost that much), you’re missing a lot of potential buyers.

If your home is near the top of a price range, you are up against a similar homes and lesser homes when people are searching. Say your home is worth around $400,000. You price it for $405,000 and searchers are going to be comparing it to $450,000 homes (and searchers with the $400,000 as their high-end cutoff won’t see it). Price it at $399 and you get an entirely new group of people seeing it and it’s one of the nicest homes in their price range. And the people who are considering homes at $405,000 will still spot it – don’t worry.

Power move if you’re a future home buyer using Estately: find the people who haven’t priced their home properly with operators in the full text box. You can search down to the dollar by typing “price < $408,000” (for homes under $408,000) into the Text Search box. Here’s an example of a custom search in Ballard.