Written from the trenches of Auckland real estate by Amit Sharma — Bayleys agent, 10+ years marketing experience.
The first 14 days on market are the most important window your property will ever have. Portal alerts fire, agents call their hot buyers, and a fresh listing is treated as a real opportunity. Price too high and you burn that window — by week three, buyers assume something is wrong.
A good price is built from three things: recent comparable sales (sold, not asking), current competing listings, and the genuine condition and presentation of your home. Asking prices are noise. Sold prices are signal.
If you are choosing between agents and one quotes a number significantly higher than the others, ask them to walk you through the comparable sales that justify it. A confident agent will show you the data, not just the number.
My recommendation: price to invite competition, not to discourage it. A property priced sharply often sells above expectation because multiple buyers compete. A property priced ambitiously often sits, then sells under expectation because there is no urgency.
One last thing — your neighbour's sale price two years ago is not a benchmark for today. The market you are selling into is the only one that matters. Trust an agent who shows you live data, not stories.