Can you just overprice it and let bidders fight on lower than asking? Essentially the same thing, but with different psychology. I wonder how it would play out differently.
A couple of years ago (in Oakland) we bid on some houses that were priced at the market rate or slightly over. In one case, we bid a token amount over the asking price, and were the only bidder. In the other case, we were slightly below asking. In both cases, the sellers had expected to get a bidding war and pulled the house from the market. In the first scenario (we bid over asking), the sellers are supposed to pay the selling agent the commission the agent should have received had the deal gone through (that is generally the rule when the agent delivers a full price offer). In the Bay Area market, however, demanding the commission would be fatal to the agent's reputation. The sellers of both houses re-listed about 6 months later and got a much higher price that what we had offered, so they won in the end.
If France is anything like Denmark, the price is usually based on a combination of a public and a private valuation of the house (both of which are available to buyers upon request). You can give it any price you want, but since buyers can get an insight to its valuation, the asking price is usually around its valuation.
So as I understand it, the strategy is usually to sell the house for a much higher price than its valuation, hoping someone is really interested in the house. And as time passes, you keep lowering the price until you get a buyer.
If you're selling through an agency, they usually recommend a price range (that you are free to decline, in which case the agency might refuse to do business with you).
If you're selling on your own, there's really no guidelines.
Usually, you try to base it on the recent sales of similar properties nearby. Sale data is more-or-less public information, and there are good aggregators:
I'm curious if the population generally thinks this is a reasonable situation. I can easily imagine a 25% difference in valuation of two properties in the same area with the same number of bedrooms, the same age, same space, and nominally the same amenities. I can also imagine a 25% difference based on some newly opened restaurants, new bus routes, etc., that will not be reflected in historical data.
There is also an enormous subjective-experience component in how people value residential real estate, and enormous variation in details that really do matter and aren't available in real estate data aggregates (like lighting profile, and how intelligently the interior design exploits that lighting profile).
It's so far from what I'd consider reasonable based on my (obviously limited) experience, and I'm genuinely curious how the locals feel about it.
Paris is its own bubble, with prices that are less tied to changing things like new bus routes or restaurants, and more to the perception of what other people pay for it. The historical aggregates usually serve as a bullshit test (if you sell at 25% above historical prices and don't have a very good reason to do so).
It is a given that the price will be very different depending on the state of the property, the quality of the building and its era (1900-1930 flats command significantly higher prices than 1970-1980), whether it's a narrow alley or a large boulevard, whether it has windows on only one side or both sides, whether there's a window in the kitchen and bathroom, and whether part of the building belongs to the public housing agency (among many others). After a while, you start to get a pretty good intuition of how high a property will sell above or below the average.
Another thing about subjective experience is some properties fit certain lifestyles and will be priced accordingly. A flat in the Bastille area (lots of bars, restaurants and night clubs) appeals to people who would pay for the privilege a bonus that a boring father of two (like me) wouldn't consider. Conversely, having an address in the Quartier Latin makes it easier to enter the top high schools, so tiny one-bedroom flats sell surprisingly high (and are then rented out to university students for a far lower price than the purchase price would suggest).
1) having a lower price attracts more bidders, and the bidders may go much higher than they originally planned after they see it in person.
2) having multiple potential buyers in the mix creates urgency, which drives the price up AND lets you sell faster.
3) Homes aren't free to own. Most have mortgages that you waste money on interest again each month, amongst other things (taxes). Selling fast for cheaper may not be less money in the end.
4) Homes on the market for a long time get tainted. People get worried there's a reason no one has jumped on it yet (maybe there's a sinkhole under it, or the water is bad, or some other thing you can't tell in a driveby).
This might be the case for very high-end houses and flats, but I don't have a lot of experience with those.
For mainstream properties, from my experience the market is saturated with people who price above market rates and would rather wait for months than accept a significantly lower price. If you see something that you might consider buying with a 20% discount, you usually don't bother visiting the place. This likely drowns out the people who are trying to set up auctions by setting a very high ask price.
I think this sounds like what the GP is describing -- they price above market to seek a higher than market offer. That they aren't inundated by offers simply suggests that the demand isn't there to garner that sort of premium. The market for houses in Silicon Valley is severely supply constrained, so sellers are able to demand a premium (that is, they could price well above what they "market" price ought to be and likely get offers at or near their asking price). It would set up a similar uncertainty in potential buyers minds that results in the absurd offers above asking that we see today.
Put differently: while the specifics of this sale (price well above asking) might be impossible in France, the "sale price well above rational market price" phenomenon is really hard to quash when the market chooses to be irrational for a while.
So basically it seems that houses in France are sold via a slow Dutch auction[1], whereas in the US it's an English auction...
It seems that the English auction goes much faster for the seller, whereas in the french house market, the buyer is the one having a fast process since as soon as they find a good home with a price they like, they can just decide to buy.
I don't know about France, but that's how it works in Italy. People ask what the maximum they think they could get, then buyers asks for discounts or the price is lowered when no buyers show up.