1254 Guestimate

A recent study concluded that people don’t like to buy things that are priced with round numbers. If, say, your house is listed at 400,000 dollars, it is less likely to sell than if it’s listed at 399,999.
But researchers found that it’s not the lower price, it’s the perception of a rounding-up effect. Because homes that were priced at 401,298 sold better as well.
Apparently, buyers conclude that the more zeros, the more the seller is trying to cheat them out of a few extra rounding-up bucks. Must be all that guestimating they taught us in school math class.
We perceive guestimating as a sub-category of lying, and trust the seller less. Which is funny. Because I’ve always thought, when I saw a shirt priced at 19.99 instead of 20 bucks, it was a cheap psychological trick.
I guess the fear of a potential liar is more of a motivator than the exasperated eye-rolling at a cheesy ruse.
In any event, a study of home sales in south Florida showed homes sold for more when they were priced precisely and not evened out to round numbers filled with zeros.
Maybe the car and loan dealers with their zero-percent financing should take notice. And the snack chip makers with their zero grams of fat. Saying 1.5 %, interest or trans fat, may sell you product better.
1.5 % still sounds small, but it also sounds more realistic. How could zero percent mean anything real? Really. One percent means one-hundredth of one. Zero percent means one-hundredth of zero. How can you have a hundredth of nothing?
And it stands to reason, the more zeros you have, the more you have of nothing.
Who wants to buy more nothing?
America, ya gotta love it.