Pricing Is Marketing: What an Evelyn Place Sale Shows About Competition

When we talk about pricing a home in Bend, I keep coming back to one point: we're not selling in isolation. We're selling in competition.

A home we listed on Evelyn Place in the Mirada neighborhood is a useful example. The sellers were friends preparing to move out of state. They wanted a successful sale that would let them move forward, and we needed to position their home among several similar choices.

The asking price was our starting position

The home had 2,020 square feet, three bedrooms and two and a half bathrooms. We listed it on August 15, 2024, at $649,000.

We felt good about the presentation. The staging and our walkthrough video helped explain the home, and we believed buyers would see a strong option when they compared it with the competition.

But confidence in your listing doesn't tell you everything. Buyers have their own priorities, and the choices available to them keep changing. We had to pay attention to the response.

New competition changes the conversation

Another Evelyn Place home entered the market on August 23 at $669,000. A second entered on September 19 at $629,000. Both were slightly larger than ours, at 2,084 square feet.

By that point, the activity on our listing wasn't what we'd hoped for. We revisited our position rather than assuming the original recommendation would keep working.

On September 19, our asking price changed to $633,000. The listing records show an under-contract date of September 22. We ultimately closed on November 8 for $625,000.

That was 38 days from our listing date to the recorded contract date. The final price was negotiated below the revised asking price. Those are the actual numbers, and they're useful because they show how a listing can develop after launch.

What the walkthrough contributed

I remember having just two in-person showings. The second brought the eventual buyers.

I asked their agent whether they'd watched our walkthrough before arranging the visit. The agent told me they had, and that seeing the full video was why they wanted to see the home in person.

That's the kind of feedback I want from a listing video. It helped these buyers understand the property well enough to take the next step. They arrived interested in a home they'd already spent time exploring online.

The pricing and the presentation each had a job to do. In this case, the agent's feedback gave us a specific example of the video helping bring the eventual buyer through the door.

Original August 2024 listing tour; this property sold in November 2024.

Why this comparison is worth looking at

This is one of my favorite pricing examples because the homes were so similar. Usually, comparing sales means working through big differences in location, age, size or layout. Here, we had homes on the same street, built in the same year, with the same bedroom and bathroom counts. The two nearby homes were only 64 square feet larger than ours.

That gives us a much closer comparison than we usually get. We can look at the prices, the timing and the results alongside the decisions we made. Every home still has its own condition, features and terms, but these weren't wildly different properties serving completely different buyers.

When our activity wasn't where we wanted it, we made a pricing adjustment. Three days after the recorded reduction, we were under contract. Our sellers closed in November, while these two nearby listings didn't close until January and February. Here's how the sales unfolded:

Source: historical listing and closing records reviewed for this case study. Prices are gross sale prices, not seller proceeds. These homes differed in size and may have differed in condition, features and terms; this is not an adjusted appraisal comparison.

Our listing closed earlier and at a higher sale price than both of these nearby homes. The home that started at $669,000 ultimately closed at $603,800. Starting with the higher asking price didn't produce the higher closing price.

That's the point I want sellers to see. A pricing decision should be judged by how it helps you reach a successful sale. In this example, we responded to the market, reached an agreement and closed while those competing homes were still waiting for their buyers. The comparison shows the outcome clearly, even though it can't isolate how much of the difference came from pricing, presentation, property features or other circumstances.

The lesson for a Bend seller

Start with recent sales, then look closely at what buyers can choose today. Keep watching that competition after your listing goes live. New listings, price changes and the response to your own home can all affect the next decision.

For these sellers, we responded to the activity, reached an agreement and got their move underway. That's why this example has stayed with me.

If you're preparing to sell, see how we approach pricing and marketing a Central Oregon home. We'll help you compare the competition, present the property and decide how to respond as the market gives you feedback.