Los Angeles Real Estate Report

Key Takeaways

• →The 10-10-0 rule: if you have zero showings in 10 days, you're way off on price and need an immediate price reduction conversation with your agent.
• →If you get 10 showings but zero offers after those 10 showings, that's also time for a price adjustment conversation.
• →Event pricing strategy involves pricing 5% to 10% below perceived market value to drive traffic and create competition, which can result in a higher final sale price than starting at market value.
• →Aspirational pricing only works for truly unique properties with extraordinary views, named architects, celebrity ownership, or something so rare that comparable sales don't exist.
• →The market knows what your home is worth regardless of what you paid for it, what you've spent on it, or what you need from the sale.
• →Properties that sit on the market in Los Angeles are perceived as damaged by buyers—the longer a home sits, the more buyers assume something is wrong with it or that it's overpriced.
• →Buyers in 2025 Los Angeles do their homework before visiting and know the actual value of your property based on comparable sales, so they approach overpriced homes looking for reasons not to buy rather than reasons to buy.

Three Home Pricing Strategies for Los Angeles Sellers

There are three distinct ways to price your home in Los Angeles, and choosing the wrong strategy can cost you tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. The first is aspirational pricing—pricing high and hoping for a sale at that number. This only works for properties with something truly unique: an extraordinary view, a named architect, celebrity ownership, or architecture so rare that comparable sales simply don't exist. We've seen even celebrity homes listed at aspirational numbers fail to sell at those prices in recent months. The second approach is market perception pricing, which positions your home where the market believes it will sell. This is a range of value, not an exact number, because you won't know the precise value until you expose the property to the market. The third strategy is event pricing—listing approximately 5% to 10% below perceived market value to drive traffic and create competition. This strategy has worked well over extended periods and is likely to be effective again in 2026 when there's juice in the market. Event pricing gets more buyers through the door, creates urgency, and can result in a final sale price that exceeds what market perception pricing would have achieved. Even if it doesn't result in a higher price, you get a better choice of buyers to work with.

What We Discovered About Buyer Perception and Days on Market

What amazes me are the number of people who still believe in that old-school approach: "We can price high because we can always come down." Can you? It is so much more difficult to capture the momentum of the market in the moment with a price reduction than it is to present that property to the market at the right price to begin with. Here's what we see happening in Los Angeles right now: the longer a property is on the market, the more damaged buyers perceive it to be. I don't think that's too strong a word. Buyers start asking, "What's wrong with it? If people don't want it, there must be something wrong with it." And they know it's overpriced because buyers today are super focused on very specific price points and types of homes. They're doing their homework before they ever come to your home. They know what that property is worth. What this means is that to get the very best result possible, you don't want extended days on market. You may end up with a price lower than you would have achieved if you had just priced it correctly in the first place. There's no nicer way of saying that. With a house that comes to market priced appropriately, you never have to apologize for that property. Buyers approach the property looking for a reason to buy it as opposed to a reason not to buy it. And which buyer do you want? Which buyer conversation do you want?

The 10-10-0 Rule for Los Angeles Home Pricing

We use what we call the 10-10-0 theory to help sellers understand when pricing is off. If you have zero showings in the first 10 days, you're way off on price and it's time for an immediate conversation about a price reduction. If you've got 10 showings but zero offers after those 10 showings, that's also time for a price adjustment conversation. Sellers need to be ready for these conversations. Those who are slow to make adjustments suffer in the long run because of days on market. What happens with properties that don't follow this rule? We know these listings and we know these agents who take these listings—they're always on the market. You can go back and look at the history in the multiple listing service and see the goalpost keeps moving forward. The property was on the market in 2024 at $2.5 million, came back in 2025 at $2.6 or $2.7 million, and when it doesn't sell, comes back in 2026 at $2.8 million. That's based on what the seller wants or feels they need, not on the reality of the market today. What you're actually doing with that strategy is helping other properties to sell. Agents can sell their own listings off of your overpriced home because buyers will compare and see that your home at $2.8 million is way off while the properly priced home at $2.495 million represents actual market value. That's the difference in the conversation, and that's why pricing correctly from the start is crucial.

Chuck Marquardt’s Perspective

“Most agents — 90% of them — let the market dictate how they will market a property. The top 10% use the market to help their sellers net the most money possible. That means thinking ahead of the curve, not just reacting to it. And when a property sits too long, buyers don't ask 'why hasn't it sold?' — they already know the answer.”

Pricing Strategy Comparison

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