How Zillow’s Algorithm Decides if Your Home is Worth Showing
How Zillow’s Algorithm Decides if Your Home is worth showing
In a market like Sublette County, buyers can scroll through every active listing in under a minute. Your listing is there. They can find it.
But here's the problem: if your home is overpriced they don’t engage with it. And when buyers don't engage, the algorithms that control Zillow, Realtor.com, and Homes.com stop pushing your listing to other buyers.
You don't disappear. You just fade into the background while well-priced listings get the spotlight.
Let me show you exactly how this works.
How the Algorithms Actually Work
Every major listing platform—Zillow, Realtor.com, Homes.com—runs on algorithms designed to show buyers the listings they're most likely to engage with. Much like social media.
When your house first hits the market, you get maximum exposure. New listings get prioritized in search results, pushed to buyers who've saved similar homes, and featured in email alerts.
The algorithm is watching. How many people click on your listing? How many save it? How many share it? How long do they spend looking at your photos?
If engagement is high, the algorithm keeps showing your listing. You stay visible in search results and email alerts.
If engagement is low, the algorithm assumes buyers aren't interested. And it starts showing your listing to fewer people.
Here's the problem: if your house is overpriced, engagement is low from day one.
What Overpricing Actually Looks Like in Western Wyoming
In Sublette County, the pattern is obvious.
When a listing is overpriced, you don't hear crickets immediately. But within the first few weeks, the silence becomes clear:
Little online traffic. Your listing views drop off faster than better-priced comparable properties. Buyers click in, see the price doesn't match the value, and leave.
Very few inquiries. The phone doesn't ring. The contact form sits empty. Buyers who are serious about the market know what properties are worth—they're monitoring listings daily, tracking sales, working with agents who pull comps.
Very few showing requests. This is the clearest signal. When a property is priced right, showings happen quickly. When it's overpriced, agents don't even bother scheduling tours because their buyers have already dismissed it based on price.
Few to no offers. Weeks turn into months. The listing sits. And the longer it sits, the worse the perception becomes.
The listing is still there. Buyers can still see it. But they're not engaging with it. They're watching it critically, waiting for you to get realistic.
The Price Band Problem Nobody Talks About
Buyers set search alerts in price bands.
$350,000 to $400,000. $400,000 to $500,000. $500,000 to $750,000.
These bands determine who sees your listing in their initial search.
Let's say your house is realistically worth $400,000. But you price it at $450,000.
The buyer searching $350,000 to $425,000 never sees your house in their filtered results. You're outside their range.
Instead, you're competing with actual $450,000 homes. Better locations. More upgrades. Larger acreage. Properties that justify the price.
And yours doesn't measure up.
So you get clicks from curious buyers who may filter you out immediately once they compare you to the real $450,000 properties.
Low engagement. Algorithmic deprioritization. Silence.
Meanwhile, the buyer who would've loved your house at $410,000 is closing on another property because they never knew you were a realistic option.
Do Price Drops Actually Work?
Here's where it gets interesting.
When you drop your price, the algorithms DO respond. Zillow, Realtor.com, and Homes.com all highlight price reductions—sometimes featuring them on the front page with "Price Reduced" badges.
You get a visibility boost. The algorithm sees updated information and pushes your listing out again.
Sometimes this translates into renewed showing activity. Sometimes it doesn't.
Here's why: even with the algorithmic boost, buyer perception has shifted.
You're no longer a fresh listing. You're a stale one with a price drop.
Research from Redfin shows that homes requiring price cuts in August 2025 sold for 3.8% less than their original asking price—the steepest discount for that month since 2019.⁴ And HousingWire's analysis found that 42% of residential listings cut prices with a typical reduction of 4.1%, demonstrating how common—and costly—this pattern has become.⁵
The algorithmic boost helps. But it doesn't erase the damage done by starting too high.
The First Two Weeks Matter Most
When your house first hits the market, you have momentum.
New listing alerts go out. Serious buyers—the ones who've been searching for months—click immediately. Agents schedule showings. The phone rings.
That window lasts roughly two weeks. It's not exact, but it's a reliable pattern. During those first 14 days, motivated buyers are actively engaging with fresh inventory.
If you're priced right, you drive showings. You create urgency. You get offers.
If you're overpriced, you waste the window. Buyers see the price, compare it to other listings, and move on. The algorithm sees low engagement and starts deprioritizing you.
After a few weeks, you're not riding that momentum anymore.
When serious buyers are monitoring every new listing—you don't get a second chance to make a first impression.
Why Timing Matters More Than You Think
The modern real estate market runs on momentum.
When buyers engage with your listing—clicking, saving, sharing, inquiring—the algorithm interprets that as "this property is valuable" and keeps showing it to more people.
When they don't engage, the algorithm moves on to listings that are generating interest.
You're still visible. But you're not being pushed. You're not at the top of search results.
The Comparison Shopping Effect
Buyers don't look at your house in isolation. They compare.
Serious buyers have toured multiple properties. They know what $450,000 buys. They've seen the comps. Their agent has walked them through recent sales.
When they come across your $450,000 listing, they're mentally comparing it to everything else at that price point.
Better access. Newer construction. More acreage. Mountain views. Updated interiors.
If yours doesn't compete, they don't think "let's negotiate." They think "this seller doesn't get it," and they move on to the next listing.
Academic research analyzing over 14,000 real estate transactions found that while aggressive pricing strategies exist, they come with significant time costs that aren't captured in the final sale price.⁷ The Northcraft and Neale study demonstrated that both real estate professionals and amateur buyers are equally influenced by listing price anchors when estimating home value—even though agents denied being influenced.⁶
But here's the key: when your price is clearly above market value, buyers anchor to what comparable properties are actually selling for—not your asking price.
They've done their homework. They know the market. And they're not willing to overpay just because you started high.
What Strategic Pricing Actually Looks Like
So what's the fix?
Price at market value. Or slightly under to create urgency.
When you price correctly from day one, you maximize engagement during your algorithmic window. You drive clicks, saves, showings, and offers. The algorithm sees high engagement and keeps pushing your listing.
Overpricing does the opposite. You get low engagement from the start. The algorithm deprioritizes you. Price drops give you a temporary boost, but they don't restore the momentum you had as a fresh, well-priced listing.
National data from NAR shows that agents recommend pricing competitively from the start—typically 3-5% below recent sales to generate showings and competition.³ The difference between a $375,000 house and a $390,000 house might be the difference between zero showings and multiple showings.
Strategic pricing isn't desperate. It's smart.
It's understanding that the first two weeks determine everything. And that once you waste that window, you're fighting an uphill battle against algorithms, buyer psychology, and market perception.
The Bottom Line on Algorithmic Reality
The modern real estate market is algorithmic.
Buyers find homes on Zillow, Realtor.com, and Homes.com. These platforms use algorithms to decide what to prioritize and what to deprioritize.
If you understand how the algorithm works, you can make it work for you.
Price correctly. Drive engagement during your fresh listing window. Stay visible. Let buyers compete.
Your Choice
Listing price is your choice in the end. Because of this, we list many homes at price points that are simply too high for the market. We work hard and get the job done, often after many price reductions. Even though we usually end up selling our home listings, a long listing timeline has real expenses: carrying costs, missed opportunities, effort keeping your home showing-ready, and the stress of uncertainty, to name a few.
If you're thinking about selling, let's talk strategy before you go live. We'll show you exactly how to price your home to maximize algorithmic exposure, drive engagement, and create the competition that leads to premium offers.
Sources & Research:
¹ Zillow Tech Hub (2019), "Introducing a New and Improved Zestimate Algorithm": https://www.zillow.com/tech/introducing-a-new-and-improved-zestimate-algorithm/
² Leasey.AI (2025), Zillow listing optimization research and Zillow Showcase Listings performance data: https://www.leasey.ai/resources/guide-creating-irresistible-free-listings-zillow/ and https://www.leetessier.com/blog/unlock-maximum-exposure-with-zillow-showcase-listings/
³ National Association of REALTORS® (2025), "Listing Price Reduction? How to Navigate It": https://www.nar.realtor/magazine/real-estate-news/sales-marketing/listing-price-reduction-how-to-navigate-it-with-buyers-sellers
⁴ Redfin (October 2025), price drop analysis: https://www.redfin.com/news/price-drops-record-rate-august-2025/
⁵ HousingWire (September 2025), market analysis: https://www.housingwire.com/articles/housing-market-price-cuts-despite-sellers-advantage/
⁶ Northcraft & Neale (1987), "Experts, Amateurs, and Real Estate: An Anchoring-and-Adjustment Perspective"
⁷ Academic research on real estate pricing (2013): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S016726811300019X
Algorithm prioritizing more engaging listings. I.e., price.
On algorithms pushing higher engagement listings upward.
https://www.realtor.com/marketing/resources/virtual-tour-badging/
https://techblog.realtor.com/evolving-personalized-recommendations-using-match-score/