Buyer's Market or Seller's Market? Why Your Pricing Strategy Depends on It
"The market" isn't a constant. It moves between phases where buyers hold the power (more supply than demand, buyers can pick and negotiate) and phases where sellers hold the power (more demand than supply, buyers compete for limited listings). In between, there are balanced phases where both sides have roughly equal leverage.
The problem for sellers: most pricing strategies are set once and never revisited — regardless of which phase the market happens to be in. A strategy that works brilliantly in a seller's market can backfire in a buyer's market, and vice versa.
Buyer's market: why "wait and see" is especially costly here
In a buyer's market, prospective buyers can choose between several comparable properties. They take more time, compare more carefully, and are more price-sensitive — partly because financing conditions are often scrutinized more strictly.
In this phase, an overpriced listing is especially risky: buyers have alternatives and will simply skip an overpriced property rather than enter negotiations. At the same time, marketing already takes longer — every additional week at the wrong price compounds the days-on-market problem described in an earlier post.
The takeaway: in a buyer's market, an attractive, competitive starting price matters even more than usual — it's often the deciding factor in whether your property even makes it onto buyers' shortlists.
Seller's market: why a single fixed price leaves money on the table
In a seller's market, the situation is reversed: multiple buyers are interested in the same property, often at the same time. Here, the biggest risk isn't that your property goes unsold — it's that you accept a price significantly below what the next-best buyer would have been willing to pay.
A fixed-price listing acts like a ceiling in this phase: as soon as one buyer accepts the price, price discovery stops — even if three other buyers would have been willing to pay more. You'll never find out, because the process leaves no room for it.
Why an offer round works in both phases
The key advantage of a non-binding offer round is that it doesn't depend on a single market phase — it adapts automatically:
- In a buyer's market, an attractive starting price ensures your property is even visible and makes it onto the shortlist of the (fewer, pickier) buyers out there. If only one or two offers come in close to the starting price, you at least know you've hit realistic market value — information that an overpriced fixed listing would only have given you after weeks of silence.
- In a seller's market, the same mechanism ensures multiple interested buyers compete with their offers, instead of the first buyer with an acceptable offer winning by default. The result reflects actual demand — not just the willingness of whoever asked first.
In both cases, the same principle applies: let the market determine the price, not a one-time estimate made at the start of the process that never adjusts to the actual market phase.
What sellers should pay attention to, regardless of market phase
A few things matter in every market phase, because they affect the speed and reliability of the sales process:
- Complete documentation from the start — energy certificate, floor plans, and other relevant property documents. Buyers asked to place an offer in an offer round need this information to feel confident.
- Realistic deadlines — for both the viewing phase and the offer window. Deadlines that are too short exclude serious buyers; deadlines that are too long unnecessarily extend your days on market.
- Clarity about your own priorities — is the highest price the only thing that matters, or do factors like handover timing and buyers' financing certainty also play a role? Know your criteria before the first offers come in.
Frequently asked questions
How do I know which market phase I'm in? A good indicator is the response to your first viewings: lots of inquiries and quick scheduling requests suggest a seller's market, while little response despite comparable listings suggests a buyer's market. In practice, the market phase often only becomes clear through actual demand — another reason an offer round is useful as a measurement tool.
Do I need to change my strategy mid-process if market conditions shift? No — that's the advantage. Because the starting price is deliberately not the target price, the process automatically responds to actual demand without requiring you to adjust your strategy partway through.
Isn't an offer round risky in a buyer's market if only a few offers come in? No — because the offers are non-binding. If only a few or low offers arrive, you don't have to accept any of them. You've gained an honest signal from the market and can still decide whether to sell, keep negotiating, or wait.
A strategy that adapts to the market — not the other way around
You don't need to predict whether you're in a buyer's or seller's market to choose the right pricing strategy. A non-binding offer round with a competitive starting price works in both cases — because it lets the market answer the question, instead of you having to guess the answer in advance.