Here's the sentence that wins the pricing conversation: "Your property has two values, and my job is to get you paid on the higher one — without letting the appraisal kill the deal."
The income premium is only real when three things hold: documented revenue (platform exports, not the seller's spreadsheet), a transferable right to operate, and performance a new owner can plausibly repeat. Miss one and investors price at comps — or below.
Residential STRs appraise on comps, not NOI. So if you list at an income-justified premium, the financed buyer's appraisal will likely come in at house value — and the deal needs a plan: cash or DSCR-heavy buyer targeting, appraisal-gap language, or a seller pre-coached to expect the gap. Have that conversation at the listing appointment, not at the appraisal objection. Sellers who first hear "appraisals don't count your revenue" three weeks into escrow blame the agent.
DSCR buyers are priced off the property's income — and lenders haircut projected STR revenue 10–25% in underwriting. That haircut quietly caps what financed investors can pay, which is one more reason the higher-paying pool for a beautiful property in a good school district is often a family, not an investor. Price to whichever pool values it more; market to both (Lesson 5).
Go deeper: The STR CMA: Revenue Analysis for Agents and STR Exit Strategy — the owner-side view of the same decision.
ACTION: On your next STR listing prospect, run both numbers before the appointment — 3–5 comps for house value, and the T12-net-divided-by-0.08-and-0.10 range for income value. Open the pricing conversation with whichever is higher.
Next lesson: the revenue deal room — the package that makes investor buyers move in days, and the forensics you run on it first.
Gross revenue before expenses. Sanity-check against real nearby listings — projections are estimates, not promises.