What to tell a seller who still wants the 2021 price
Existing-home sales are just above 4 million, the lowest since 1995, and affordability is the top constraint clients name at 27% (HousingWire on the NAR 2026 Member Profile). Meanwhile, the seller across the kitchen table remembers the bidding war on the house next door and wants that number. Wayne Throop lists it as a defining 2026 challenge: sellers still want 2021 peak prices while buyers expect everything to be negotiable (Wayne Throop). You are in the middle. Here is how to get out of it.
Why the 2021 price is still in their head
The seller is not being difficult. They are working from the last data point they trusted, and that data point was a neighbor's sale in a market with cheap money and no inventory. They have had no reason to update it. Zillow gives them a number, but they discount it because you have told them to. Nobody has given them a current local figure from a person they trust.
That is the gap, and it is the agent's to fill. Throop describes the modern agent as advisor, educator, negotiator and therapist (Wayne Throop). The pricing conversation is the educator part. If the education starts at the listing appointment, you are already behind, because you are now the person taking money off the table rather than the person who has been reporting the market all along.
Rates near 7% (Inman, September 2026) are the mechanism, and most sellers do not connect the two. The buyer who could afford their house at 2021 rates is paying far more a month for the same loan now. Same house, smaller buyer pool, longer wait. The seller does not need an economics lesson, but they need that one link made plainly.
Three things you can say, in plain language
Arguing with a seller about their number loses even when you win. Instead, say something short, factual and local, then stop talking. Three options.
"Here is what sold within half a mile in the last 90 days, and here is how long each one sat. Your 2021 number is above all of them. We can list there, but I want you to know what the last six buyers actually paid."
"If we price at the 2021 number, the likely outcome is thirty days of no showings, then a price cut that buyers can see on every portal. The house that cut looks worse than the house that priced right the first time. I would rather you get the strong first two weeks."
"I am not telling you what your house is worth to you. I am telling you what the market has paid for houses like it since spring. Those are different numbers, and only one of them closes."
Notice none of these mentions the buyers, who they are, or what they are looking for. They mention sales, days on market and price. Keep it there. The data does the arguing, and the data is not personal.
The conversation is shorter if it started six months ago
Here is the hard part. Each of those lines works ten times better if the seller has already heard you say the local numbers, out loud, every month, before they ever called you. Then you are not the bearer of bad news at the kitchen table. You are the person whose numbers they have been watching, and the appointment is a confirmation, not a confrontation.
That is the real case for becoming the local market economist with a monthly market update video. Five local numbers, under ninety seconds, same day every month. By the time a past client decides to sell, they have absorbed the trend. Many will call already knowing the 2021 number is gone, and the ones who do not will at least recognize your figures when you show them.
It is also where repeat and referral business comes from. NAR reports agents with 16 or more years get a median 49% of business from repeat clients (HousingWire). Those clients are the ones who will list with you in a hard market, and they are more likely to trust your price if you have been visible to them in between transactions. There is more on that in the half of your business most agents forget to market to.
When the seller will not move
Some will not. You can take an overpriced listing and hope, or you can decline it. Either way, write down what you told them and when. If you take it, agree in advance on a review date, say day 21, with a specific price step if showings are below a specific count. The agreement made before the listing goes live is far easier to enforce than the one you try to make after the first silent weekend.
If you decline, do it without heat. "I do not think I can get you that number, and I would rather tell you now than three months from now." Some of those sellers come back after the first agent fails, and they come back to the person who was honest. In a market where Inman finds only 34% of agents expect their listing pipelines to grow in the next year (Inman client pipeline tracker), that returning seller matters.
Either way, keep sending the monthly numbers to everyone, including the seller who said no. The market will make your argument for you, and your video will be the thing they remember.
Where MirriFi fits
MirriFi's monthly market update videos use licensed local market data, delivered in your face and voice from one recording session of about fifteen minutes. The point is that your sellers have been hearing your numbers before the listing appointment, so the pricing conversation is shorter. It will not make a stubborn seller reasonable, but it does make you the one they believe. You can see it on your own face, no card, no call.