The easiest way to get a higher valuation for your house is to sell to an apartment builder. I realize there are loads of cultural hangups around doing that (the driving force behind NIMBY-ism), but the mathematical truth is that there is a win-win solution here if "Everyone wan'ts the house they sell to be worth more" is the only problem.

Peoples' demands are even more unreasonable: Until they sell, they want nothing in their neighborhood to change. They don't want an apartment building where their neighbor was.