Sellers tend to make one of two mistakes when they set an asking price: they anchor to the county's assessed value or to what they paid years ago, or they guess based on a number a friend mentioned. Both approaches leave money on the table or scare off buyers with an unrealistic number. The fix is the same one appraisers and brokers use — start from real comparable sales, not assumptions.
The fastest path: pull instant comparable sales on your property with the free Broker Opinion of Value tool, then request a comp-driven memo. You'll have a defensible price range in about one business day, at no cost.
Don't Start From the Tax Assessment
The property appraiser's assessed (just) value exists for taxation, not for pricing a sale. It routinely lags the market — sometimes by a lot — and it doesn't account for current condition, in-place leases, or what buyers are actually paying for similar assets right now. If your list price is anchored to the tax roll, you're negotiating from the wrong number before a single offer comes in.
What the Comparable-Sales Data Actually Shows
Real transaction data, not averages from a report, should set the range. Pulling from recorded commercial sales across the tri-county market over the trailing 18 months: Miami-Dade County recorded roughly 1,681 qualifying commercial sales at a median of about $519 per square foot, and Palm Beach County recorded about 538 qualifying sales at a median of about $370 per square foot. Those medians span all commercial use types and submarkets, so your specific number will move up or down from there based on asset type, location, and condition — but they show real, recent transaction volume exists to price against, in every county. For a submarket-level breakdown by city and asset type, see the South Florida price index and submarket reports.
A Data-Driven Way to Set Your Price
- Pull comparable sales for your exact asset type and submarket. A retail storefront in Delray Beach and a warehouse in Doral don't share a price range — comps need to match use type, size, and location as closely as possible. Start with the free Broker Opinion of Value tool for instant public-record data and recent comps on your property.
- Check current market context. Use the price index and submarket reports to see where your city and asset type sit relative to the broader county trend before you commit to a number.
- Benchmark against the range, don't just average it. The price benchmark tool helps you see where a candidate price falls relative to recent comps, so you're not just picking the midpoint blind.
- For income-producing property, sanity-check against cap rate. If the asset is leased, run the numbers through a cap rate calculator to make sure your price makes sense relative to in-place income, not just per-SF comps.
- Price with room to negotiate, not room to regret. List inside the comp-supported range with a small buffer for negotiation — pricing meaningfully above the data just extends your days on market without moving the eventual sale price.
Where a Broker Fits In
You can pull comps and get a defensible range yourself with the free BOV tool. Where a broker adds value is translating that range into a listing strategy — how to position the property, who the realistic buyer pool is, and how to run a process that gets you competing offers instead of one lowball. If you're ready to explore a sale, see how a sale works with Mattis Advisors — there's no obligation to list just because you request a value range.
Common Pricing Mistakes That Cost Sellers Money
The most expensive mistake is pricing from the assessed value or from what you paid — both are disconnected from what a buyer will actually pay today. The second most expensive is pricing purely on a rule-of-thumb per-SF number without adjusting for your specific submarket and condition. And the quietest one is skipping a value check altogether and listing on instinct, which either leaves the property overpriced and stale on market, or undervalued and gone in a week for less than it was worth. A short comp pull before you set a number solves all three.
The Bottom Line
Price from comparable sales, not the tax assessment or a gut feeling. Pull recent comps for your exact asset type and submarket, check them against current market context, sanity-check income property against cap rate, and leave room to negotiate without pricing yourself out of buyer interest. The data to do this exists and is free to access before you spend a dollar on a formal appraisal or commit to a listing.
Related tools: Get a free Broker Opinion of Value on your property, or read what actually determines your property's value before you price it.
