Be like the Mouse and Keep the Hands between 10 and 2
Where the market actually lives
There is a man in the Old Testament who waited longer than any of us will ever have to wait. He lost everything. He sat in the ruins of his life and he waited. He did not panic. He did not sell. He trusted that if he simply held on, the right outcome would arrive.
He was right.
He was also Job. And you are not Job.
The Seller Who Can Afford to Wait Forever
Let me introduce you to someone I meet occasionally on 30A.
Their home is worth three million dollars. Objective value - not a fantasy, not an emotion. An honest assessment backed by the data, the comps, the market, the location. Three million dollars is what a broad and rational pool of buyers would pay for this home today.
But this seller is not selling today. This seller believes, and there is a logic to it, that if they simply hold long enough, patience will be rewarded. A different buyer will arrive. A more desperate buyer. A buyer who sees six million dollars of value where the market sees three. And so the home sits. And sits. And the days on market climb. And the price holds. And the seller waits.
This seller is exercising a virtue. Patience is a virtue. The Bible says so.
The market, however, does not read the Bible.
What the market reads is days on market. And the longer a home sits, the more the market decides something is wrong with it. Sellers who wait for the buyer that doesn’t exist yet have a name in economics. We call them irrational. We call them, gently, respectfully, misaligned.
A home objectively worth three million dollars held at six million dollars for years is not a strategy. It is a wish. And the market does not pay for wishes.
The Seller Who Can’t Afford to Wait at All
Now meet someone else.
Same home. Same three million dollar value. Different seller.
This seller is watching the news. Maybe the news is about interest rates. Maybe it’s about the economy, the political cycle, the insurance market, the hurricane season. Maybe it’s just a feeling. A premonition. A suspicion that the good times are about to turn.
And so they price at two-six. To move it. To capture the gain before the window closes. To beat the clock they imagine is running.
The home sells. The seller moves on. Two-point-six million dollars hits the account.
Was that wrong?
Not necessarily. There are entirely valid reasons to be impatient. Liquidity needs are real. Life changes are real. Market uncertainty is real. Sometimes the bird in hand is the right bird and the bush is not worth the wait.
But here’s the question I would have asked before that decision was made: Is the clock actually running? Or are you just afraid it is?
Because fear and analysis are not the same instrument. They can produce the same answer. But only one of them is reliable.
Where the Market Lives
Between those two sellers — the one waiting for a buyer who may never come and the one who left four hundred thousand dollars on the table because the news made them nervous — between those two people, that is where the market lives.
The market is not a building. It is not an algorithm. It is not a headline or a Fed announcement or a gut feeling. The market is the aggregate judgment of a large number of people who are trying, with imperfect information, to figure out what something is worth right now. Not in ten years. Not in a different economy. Now.
And right now, on 30A, here is what I can tell you.
Good homes are finding buyers. Not instantly, those days are behind us, and honestly, that was never a normal market. What we have now is a more balanced market, which means days on market are extending. Which means patience is warranted.
A measure of patience. Not the patience of Job.
The seller who prices correctly, presents well, and understands that the right buyer may take a few months to arrive, that seller does well here. That seller is not leaving money on the table. That seller is not chasing a buyer who doesn’t exist.
That seller is reading the market correctly.
Reading Tea Leaves Is Actually a Skill
Let me be direct about something.
This is what I do.
Not the key-in-the-lockbox part of this business. Not the Instagram photos of beach sunsets. The analysis. The reading of where we are in a cycle, what the inventory is telling us, what the days-on-market trend actually means versus what it feels like it means.
Right now, days on market are extending because the market is normalizing. That is not the same as the market declining. Sellers who confuse those two things will underprice. Sellers who ignore both things entirely will overprice. The difference between a good outcome and a bad one is often nothing more than an accurate read of which moment we are in.
We are in a moment that calls for a proper measure of patience. Proper is the word. Not infinite. Not zero. Proper.
If your home is objectively priced, if the condition is right, if the positioning is right, the buyer is out there. They are not here yet. They will be here. 30A does not stop being 30A because the market takes a breath.
But if your pricing strategy is based on what you once heard a neighbor got, or what you need to cover your next purchase, or what a number feels like to you in the abstract, the wait will be long. And the ending will be the impatient version.
The Dial
Think of it as a dial.
All the way to the left is the seller waiting for a buyer who will pay twice the objective value. Infinite patience. Unlimited optimism. No transaction.
All the way to the right is the seller who prices fourteen percent below value because they’re afraid of a headline. Maximum impatience. Real money left behind.
Neither extreme is a strategy. Both extremes are a failure of analysis masquerading as a decision.
The market lives somewhere between ten and two o’clock. Not far left. Not far right. A position anchored in what the home is actually worth, how long that kind of home actually takes to sell in this market right now, and what is actually driving that timeline, data, not anxiety.
That is where I try to position every seller I work with.
You hired me — or you should hire someone like me — to tell you where the dial should sit. Not to agree with whatever number feels comfortable. Not to validate the dream price or the panic price.
To read the market. Set the price. And get you the outcome you actually earned.
Job waited seven chapters. The market will not wait seven chapters.
But the market will wait long enough — if you price it right. In the end, with three good pictures, three good sentences and three seconds, your home will find a buyer if it is presented at a proper value.