Pricing Isn’t Just a Number - Flip Furniture With Confidence

Val Frania: Hi there. You're listening to Flipping Furniture for Profit, and I'm Val Frania. Yes, we talk about furniture here, but we also talk about things that really determine whether this whole thing works. Mindset, skill gaps, decision making, and the habits that either move you forward or hold you back. So today let's talk about pricing. There's no shortage of opinions when it comes to pricing furniture. People will tell you what to charge. But when it comes to pricing, they'll also tell you when to lower that price, how to respond to offers. You know, like lowball or percentages off, but very few people take the time to explain why. And if you don't understand that part, you're always going to feel unsure. You're always feeling like you're reacting instead of deciding. Now I do teach the actual pricing ranges. You know, contracts, step by step structure inside my Blueprint.

But that's not what I want to talk about today. Today, I want to walk you through how I think about pricing because that's the part that really makes everything else work. So let me tell you a quick story. Years ago, I painted a really unique little side table. I named her Ruby. And yes, that's the same Ruby I later turned into one of my courses where I showed how to recreate the design. At the time, I had her listed for one hundred and nineteen dollars. A woman and her daughter came out to buy it. She loved it, reached into her purse, pulled out her cash and said, "Oh no, I only have one hundred dollars. Will you take that?" In that moment, my heart jumped. You know that feeling, that pressure, that split second moment where you feel like you're backed into a corner. She hesitated a little. She didn't like that answer. I said, "No, it's one hundred and nineteen dollars." And then she left. Of course, the second she drove away, I started questioning myself. I had gotten that table for free from a friend. It would have still met my rule of making at least one hundred dollars profit. Because let's be honest, we all want to sell our pieces, don't we? But something in me said, "No." I just couldn't do it. Not because of the nineteen dollars. It wasn't really about the nineteen dollars. It was because of what it represented to me. It wasn't someone who just forgot cash. It felt planned. It felt like pressure, like I was being pushed to give in and I just couldn't do it. Not because I needed to win. But because I needed to stay aligned with how I do business. So I let her walk away. And then I breathed a quiet prayer, "Lord, please bring me the right buyer."

Two days later, I sold it for full price. And the woman who bought it loved it so much she sent me a photo of it in her home. And I remember thinking, "That's what I want." That moment taught me something really important. Pricing is about more than picking a number. It reflects your integrity, your standards, and the kind of business you're building. As believers, this matters even more. We're not one person in business and another in personal life. There's a verse in James that talks about someone looking into a mirror and then walking away and forgetting who they are. And I think about that in our business. I don't want to forget who I represent just because I'm trying to make a sale. God honors integrity in this business. It doesn't rest entirely on my shoulders or on your shoulders. So when I think about pricing, I don't start with numbers. I start with value.

And here's something that might surprise you. Price isn't based on your time, your effort, or even your materials. It's based on what the piece is worth. I've developed a skill to create something beautiful quickly. Why would I pay less just because I got faster at it? Skill does compress time, but it increases value. If I got a piece for free or used paint already had, that doesn't mean I should earn less than someone who spent more. The buyer isn't evaluating your process. They don't care what you paid for the piece. They don't care how much time you spent on it. They don't care what you had to do to fix it. They're just looking at that piece and asking, is it worth it to me? That's it. And this ties into something bigger.

Profit isn't decided when you price your piece. It's decided on how you run your entire process. Do you take care of your tools so they last? Are you buying more materials than you need? Are you choosing pieces wisely? Are you working on things that can be flipped quickly, efficiently, easily? All of those little decisions add up. Even if we don't think about them in the moment. Now, from a practical standpoint, there are some things that I do. I typically price my pieces on the higher end of what the market will allow. Because you can always come down, but it's very hard to go up and people will evaluate your piece based on the price. If it's too low, they expect junk, even if it isn't junk. If it's priced higher, they assume it's high end. You're not just pricing a piece, you're training your audience. I'll often build in about ten to twenty percent wiggle room in my pricing. People like to feel like they got a deal. And I'll set prices ending in a seven or a nine, not a zero like two hundred and ninety seven dollars instead of three hundred dollars. It sounds silly, I know, but our brains are funny. Two hundred and ninety seven feels a lot cheaper than three hundred dollars, even though it's really not. It's just human nature. And psychology is part of sales. It's weird, but it works. But those that really are small things, they're not the foundation of our pricing. Okay. Another important one. I never lower my price directly on a listing. If you do that, Facebook will cross it out and then show a lower price. And what you're doing, whether you realize it or not, is training your audience to wait. Instead, I'll remove the listing and re-list later at a different price. And when it comes to the market. Yes, you should understand it, but don't blindly follow it.

There are a lot of flippers out there, I'm sure you've seen them who underprice their work because they lack confidence, or they really don't understand the value of what they have. I price my pieces higher than most in my area because I know the quality of my work. I don't sell junk, so I don't price it like I do. Now let's talk about something that every flipper deals with - the dreaded lowball offers. They can be so annoying, can't they? Let's be honest, they can really be offensive as well. You've put in time and effort creativity into a piece. You're proud of its outcome, and then someone throws out a number that feels really ridiculous. That feeling is real. I felt it too. But here's what I've learned. That offer is not a reflection of you or your work. It's a reflection of the person making it. Their budget or their mindset. Maybe their habits. And this is where character comes in. I think about when my kids were little, they'd say the silliest things, do things that made no sense, and we'd laugh, maybe even roll our eyes a little because we understood they didn't really know any better. And later in life, when my mom got older, it was similar, kind of in a different way. She had her own perspective. Some things she said would be a little off or even offensive, but I didn't take it personally. I understood where she was coming from. Then is when I learned the internal eye roll. No one could see it. But trust me, it was there. And that's how I feel in business too. Some people just aren't at the same level of understanding.

So when someone throws out a low offer, I don't agree with it, but I don't carry it with me either. It's much better way to live. Just do that internal eye roll and say, "No." How I respond isn't based on how they behaved, it's based on who I am. So I stay kind. Simple responses like, "No thank you," or "I'm firm at that price." Or you could even say, "I do have other pieces that might fit your budget," and if I'm feeling a little cheeky. I might even say, "It's for sale. I'm not renting it," but I don't let it shake me. There's a verse that says, "Great peace have they which love thy law and nothing shall offend them." I think that's such a beautiful picture. When you're grounded, when you're confident, when you know who you are, you don't have to be thrown off by every interaction. Well, now let me tell you another little story. We went to pick up a bedroom set once, and the seller had an antique cabinet, a side by side, curved glass in the, you know, in the door and a beveled mirror. It was a beautiful piece. He offered it to us for one hundred bucks and we said. "Yes." And then it sat for months, which I really don't recommend. Because I don't normally deal in antiques, I wanted to understand what I had and I never rush into pricing. When I finally did some research, saw it was quite rare. I priced it at twelve hundred dollars and I didn't hear a thing from anybody. No interest, so I pulled it. I waited a few weeks, then I re-listed it at nine hundred dollars and it sold within days.

That taught me something important. Pricing isn't about getting it perfect the first time. It's about learning how the market responds. Sometimes you test out your market and also sometimes a piece just haven't found its person yet. And finally, this is just how I choose to run my business. I would rather sell one piece and make four to five hundred dollars on that one piece, then sell four or five pieces, making seventy five to one hundred each. It's less work, less space, more intention. I don't chase volume, I choose margin. And just like that antique that I bought for one hundred and sold for nine hundred, I didn't lay a finger on it other than dust it before the lady came to look at it. Sometimes you can buy pieces and flip them without touching them.

Now don't get me wrong, I do sell smaller pieces too. And tables, cabinets, chairs. You know, those absolutely have a place. But they're not my foundation. They support the business. They're not what I build it on. So if you take anything away from this, let it be this: pricing isn't just a number. It reflects your integrity, your confidence, your standards, your patience, And the kind of business you're building. Is this a hobby or is it a business? How seriously do you take it and how patient can you be while you build it? I don't price to sell fast. I price in a way I can stand behind and sleep well at night. Trusting that the right buyer will come, and that I did justice to the work that I've done. We are creating furniture art. People should respect that and should understand that it's just like any painter. We just have a different canvas. And when you understand that and they understand that it makes a difference, you stop guessing. You start deciding. If you're at a place where you're trying to figure out what to work on, how to move forward, how to make better decisions with your pieces. I've put together something that I call the Clear Path Guide. It walks you through that step by step, so you're not guessing. And please do message me with questions. Some of my favorite conversations come from people just reaching out and sharing what they're working on. So please don't hesitate to do that.

And let me leave you with this. Your pricing does show your confidence in your work. Build that confidence, build your skills, turn out beautiful pieces and then price them because they're furniture art, price them because they're beautiful and well done. Because you've created a high quality, functional piece that anybody would be proud to display in their home and use. You've got this.