05/26/2026
The Market Should Set the Price, Not the Agent
Why It Is Time to Take Real Estate Auctions Seriously.
As both a Realtor and an auctioneer, I sit in an unusual seat. I see how traditional real estate transactions actually unfold, and I also see how auctions, the oldest and most transparent form of negotiation we have, work in practice. The longer I do this, the more convinced I am that our industry is overdue for an honest conversation about how we price and sell property.
Here is what prompted this piece. A property recently went under contract after just four days on the MLS, four days that happened to fall over a holiday weekend. The first offer was accepted. When I raised the question of whether that really served the seller, the responses from other agents were predictable. “They probably got full price or over asking.” “The seller accepted the offer, not the agent.” “Other buyers should have moved faster.”
All of those statements may be technically true. None of them answer the actual question.
The CMA Is an Opinion, Not a Value
Traditional pricing in real estate starts with a CMA, a comparative market analysis. A Realtor looks at what similar properties sold for recently and uses that data to suggest a list price. It is a reasonable starting point, and it is useful information. But let us be honest about what a CMA actually is. It is one person’s opinion, informed by what other people thought other properties were worth at other moments in time.
Property value is influenced by far more than recent comps. Proximity to neighboring properties, unique features, the condition of the land, the timing of the sale, the financing environment, and the specific needs of individual buyers all matter. A CMA cannot capture any of that with precision. It gives you a range. It gives you a guess. It does not give you truth.
When a listing agent puts a price into the MLS based on that CMA, and a property sells quickly at or near that price, we tell ourselves the market validated the number. But did it? Or did the market simply accept what it was offered, because the property never had the chance to be tested?
Data Built on Opinions Is Still Opinion
I hear a lot about statistical data in real estate. Days on market, sale-to-list ratios, average sold price per square foot. These numbers feel objective, but they are built on a foundation of subjective inputs. If a property is listed at 100% over what it eventually sells for, is it really selling at half its value, or is it selling at actual value while the list price was simply wrong from the start?
The MLS is a powerful tool, but it reflects the decisions of agents and sellers more than it reflects the true behavior of the market. Every transaction is different. Every property is different. And the broader real estate market is full of variables that no spreadsheet can fully account for.
What “Coming Soon” Actually Means
If a property is on the market, it should be on the market. The growth of “coming soon” status, pocket listings, and quiet sales tells me the industry is increasingly comfortable with limiting exposure rather than maximizing it. That may serve the agent. It may serve a fast transaction. It rarely serves the seller’s bottom line, and it certainly does not serve the buyers who never got a fair shot.
A seller can be happy with the terms of a sale and still have left money on the table. They just would not know it, because they never saw what else the market might have offered.
Why Auctions Work
Auction is not a last resort. It is not a fire sale. It is not just for foreclosures or distressed properties, even though that is the perception many people in our industry still carry.
The most valuable items in the world are sold at auction. Fine art, rare cars, thoroughbred horses, vintage wine, jewelry, and trophy real estate all trade through competitive bidding. Sotheby’s and Christie’s have been doing this for nearly three hundred years. If auctions consistently produced lower prices, those institutions would not exist. They thrive because their clients understand something fundamental. The only way to discover what something is truly worth is to let qualified buyers compete for it openly.
That is what an auction does. It puts every interested, qualified buyer in the same room at the same time, with full transparency, and lets them set the price together. The seller does not have to trust that one agent priced the property correctly. The buyers do not have to wonder whether a better offer was quietly accepted before they had a chance. The market itself reveals the value.
Auctions Have Always Been Here
It is worth remembering that auction is not a new idea or a niche tactic. It is one of the oldest forms of commerce in human history. Long before the MLS existed, before there were licensed Realtors and standardized contracts, people gathered to buy and sell property through open, competitive bidding. The auction is the original market.
Different auction formats serve different purposes. Foreclosure auctions, estate auctions, charity auctions, government surplus auctions, and luxury auctions all operate by different rules and reach different audiences. When someone asks an AI whether auctions sell for more than traditional listings, the answer they get is averaged across all of those formats, most of which involve distressed property or specialized markets. That is not the comparison we should be drawing. The right comparison is between an open, competitive, well-marketed auction and a traditional listing, both serving the same seller in the same market.
What I Want Our Industry to Consider
I am not arguing that every property should be sold at auction. I am arguing that auction belongs in the conversation. As Realtors, our job is to serve our clients’ best interests, not to default to the method that is easiest or most familiar. That means presenting options. It means having honest conversations about pricing, exposure, and how the market actually discovers value.
The way our clients gather information is changing. Buyers and sellers have more access to data than ever before, and they are asking harder questions. They deserve real answers, not reassurances built on the assumption that the way we have always done things is the way we should keep doing them.
The market sets the price. Not the agent. Not the CMA. Not the first offer that walks through the door on a holiday weekend.
It is time for open discussions, transparent processes, and a willingness to consider that the oldest method of trade may still be the fairest one we have.
