Selling in Richmond, priced to the block.

Richmond punishes neighborhood-average pricing more than most metros because the housing stock changes street by street. A corner on Hanover in the Fan does not trade like a mid-block on Stuart. Two houses a hundred feet apart in Church Hill can carry very different numbers depending on which streets have turned.

A pricing analysis that pulls comps from a three-mile radius and calls it a market read is describing a zip code. Ask for the comps on your street and the two streets that feed it, and ask which ones were adjusted and why.

Most sellers over-invest in the wrong end. The order that actually returns, roughly:

• Anything a buyer's inspector will find anyway. You are paying for it either way, and you pay less when it is not being negotiated under a deadline.
• Paint. It is the cheapest square-foot-for-square-foot change in the building.
• Light. Bulbs to a consistent temperature, blinds up, every fixture working. Photos and showings both live on it.
• Decluttering and depersonalizing, which costs time rather than money.
• Then, and only then, discretionary upgrades. A new kitchen rarely returns its cost inside a sale window, and in historic Richmond stock a flip-style gut can actively cost you with the buyer paying for the original detail.

This one came from watching two buyers do the same thing independently. Both asked for a floor plan before they would engage at all. Both of those listings closed.

So the sequence changed. The Coming Soon goes live with one or two hero shots, front and back, plus a CubiCasa floor plan. No interior gallery. Buyers who need to understand the layout get exactly what they asked for, and buyers who want the reveal have a reason to wait for it.

Then you watch the saves-to-views ratio from the moment it posts. Saves are the number that tells you whether demand is stacking before you go active. Views tell you the marketing worked. Saves tell you somebody is planning around your house.

Read past price to the terms that decide whether the deal actually closes: financing type and the strength of the pre-approval behind it, the size of the earnest money deposit, the length of the inspection window and how it is written, whether there is an appraisal gap and how much, and the closing date against your own next move.

An offer twelve thousand higher with a shaky approval and a wide-open inspection contingency can easily be worth less than the clean one under it. The question is not what they offered. It is what survives to settlement.

Ask for a seller net sheet before the listing goes live, not after an offer arrives. It should show your mortgage payoff, brokerage compensation as negotiated, Virginia grantor tax and recordation, settlement fees, prorated real estate taxes for the locality, any agreed seller credits, and repairs negotiated after inspection.

Commissions are negotiable and are not set by law or by any association. Anyone who tells you a rate is standard is telling you their rate.

Sequence beats speed. Doing the prep after the photos, or pricing before the comps, is what creates a price reduction in week three.

1. 01

   Get a block-level pricing analysis

   Pull comps from your street and the streets that feed it, with adjustments explained. Reject a three-mile-radius average as a pricing basis.

2. 02

   Run the pre-inspection triage

   Handle what an inspector will find anyway, then paint and light, then declutter. Skip discretionary renovation unless the analysis says it moves the price.

3. 03

   Shoot the hero images and order the floor plan

   Two exterior hero shots, front and back, plus a CubiCasa floor plan. Hold the interior gallery.

4. 04

   Go Coming Soon and watch saves

   Publish the Coming Soon with the floor plan only, then track the saves-to-views ratio daily to read demand before you go active.

5. 05

   Go active with the full gallery

   Release interiors, open the showing calendar, and let the buyers who have been waiting on the reveal move first.

6. 06

   Evaluate offers on terms, not price

   Compare financing strength, earnest money, inspection window, appraisal gap, and closing date alongside the number. Counter on terms where the price is close.

7. 07

   Manage inspection and appraisal

   Respond inside the contract windows. Where an appraisal comes in low, the gap clause you negotiated decides who covers it.

8. 08

   Close

   Confirm the final net sheet against the settlement statement before the table, and settle at the title company.