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Lower North Shore · August 2026
Why choosing the biggest number
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Dear Readers, | |||||
| Last week I explained how to read an appraisal before you trust it. This week I want to show you what can happen when a seller chooses the highest appraisal simply because it is the highest. | |||||
| An inflated appraisal may win the listing. It still has to face the market. | |||||
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The First Two Weeks Matter Most
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| New listings receive the greatest concentration of attention. Buyers receive alerts, agents call their databases, and the first inspections generally produce the strongest activity. | |||||
| If the pricing is out of step with the evidence, many serious buyers do not negotiate. They simply move on. A later price correction may generate new enquiry, but it cannot fully recreate the first impression. | |||||
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Price Determines Who Sees the Property
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| Buyers search within price brackets. A buyer searching between $3.0 million and $3.5 million may never see a property guided at $3.6 million — even if that buyer would willingly pay $3.4 million for the right home. | |||||
| The property is not merely less attractive at the inflated figure. It may be invisible to the buyer most likely to pay close to its true value. | |||||
| This also reduces competition. Fewer inspections generally mean fewer second visits, contract requests, building reports and auction registrations. At auction, one buyer gives you a negotiation. Several qualified buyers give you competition. | |||||
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Time Changes the Buyer’s Question
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| When a property is first listed, buyers ask: “What will I need to pay to secure it?” Several weeks later, they begin asking: “Why hasn’t it sold — and how negotiable is the owner?” | |||||
| Nothing may be wrong with the home, but the negotiating balance has started moving towards the buyer. A decisive price correction can restore interest. Repeated reductions, however, often encourage buyers to wait for the next one. | |||||
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What Ten Weeks of Data Tells Us
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| Across the Lower North Shore suburbs we track from early June to early August: | |||||
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| Our Sale-to-Guide Index compares sale prices with their original advertised guides. A negative reading means the tracked properties generally sold below their starting guides — and it has been negative in nine of the past ten weeks. | |||||
| The picture is clear: sellers are adjusting their expectations to meet the market. Buyers have not disappeared — they are still inspecting and purchasing, but they have become more disciplined and less willing to overpay. | |||||
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Lower North Shore Auction Scorecard
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| We tracked 131 Lower North Shore auction campaigns during the same period. Of those, 77 sold — 49 before auction, 13 under the hammer and 15 after auction — a clearance rate of 58.8%. The remaining 54 properties are still on the market or have been withdrawn. | |||||
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| The largest group sold before auction day. That tells us the price strategy, buyer management and negotiation conducted during the campaign matter just as much as what happens under the hammer. | |||||
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David’s Take
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| Ten weeks of data tells one story louder than the rest: the market has not stopped, but it has become less forgiving. | |||||
| One of the most expensive sentences in real estate is: “We can always reduce the price later.” Yes, you can. But by then the strongest buyer attention may have passed, and your negotiating position may have weakened. | |||||
| The highest appraisal does not guarantee the highest result. It can produce a longer campaign, a difficult price correction and weaker negotiation at the end. The agent who gives you an honest number is not being conservative — they are protecting your launch, your competition and your final result. | |||||
| I would rather defend an honest appraisal before the property is listed than explain an inflated one after the buyers have moved on. | |||||
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| At Team Howe, every appraisal is built from recent comparable sales, competing properties, buyer behaviour and the individual features of your home. | |||||
| The objective is not to choose the highest or lowest number — it is to establish the most defensible number and create the strongest possible competition around your home. | |||||
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Thinking About Selling This Spring?
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| If you would like to know what the evidence says your home is worth before you launch — the data, not an opinion — reply to this email or call me. | |||||
| We will establish the right number and build the right strategy before your campaign begins. | |||||
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Next Week
Buyer Feedback: What to Listen To, What to Ignore — and When to Act.
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A Note on the Data
In the interest of the honesty we ask of every appraisal: medians are used throughout, because weekly average prices swing on one or two high-end sales and mislead. Auction clearance rates are Sydney and SW-wide (Domain, REA), not Lower North Shore specific. Source: Team Howe database and portal data, 8 June – 8 August 2026.
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Explore The Area
Northbridge Interactive Map
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Lower North Shore
140 Sailors Bay Road, Northbridge NSW 2063
The Monday Newsletter · Property Insights
© Raine & Horne Lower North Shore. You are receiving this because you have previously been in touch with our office about Lower North Shore property. |
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