A smart list price starts with the latest sold level, not wishful thinking
You are deciding where to set your list price so you attract serious buyers without leaving money on the table. My answer in Santa Monica, CA is to anchor your pricing to the recent closing reality, because a typical closed price was $1,690,000 last month and homes generally did not need discounts to sell.
One number to respect from recent Santa Monica, CA closings is the typical sale price $1,690,000 last month. At the same time, recent accepted deals landed around 100.3% of asking last month, and the typical sale took 34 days. Those three facts together tell me your price and presentation must be defensible from day one.
The practical impact is that buyers are showing they will pay at or slightly above asking when the home is positioned correctly, but they still take time to close. Some metrics were not reported for this period. I cannot tell you from these numbers alone which specific home features are driving premiums, so I do not guess. What I can do is insist you treat the first pricing decision as your biggest leverage point because the market is not rewarding overpriced launches with easy corrections.
Start with a pricing range tied to recent closed results and then pick a list price that can be defended against what buyers just paid, not what you hope they will pay. Get your prep and disclosure posture aligned with a 34-day typical timeline remove avoidable objections early so the buyer does not use them as a price lever later. If your plan depends on testing a higher number, set a firm decision point to adjust quickly if you are not getting real traction relative to the typical pace and the near-asking close behavior.
