As mountineer22 points out, this is a strategy to concentrate serious offers and play them against one another. The lower you set the price, the more initial in

As mountineer22 points out, this is a strategy to concentrate serious offers and play them against one another. The lower you set the price, the more initial interest you get, the greater chance two or more potential buyers get excited. With competitive bids, you can find the true 'market' price pretty quickly. In a hot market this apparently works well. Anecdotally, when my wife and I were looking for our eventual home in Cambridge a few years ago, we went to more than a couple of "open houses" which were pro forma: Despite being listed on Wednesday, by Saturday the sellers already had an offer they were prepared to accept without even waiting for competitive bids!