Pricing is the single most consequential decision in a sale. Get it right and the showings come fast, offers follow, the home closes near asking, often above. Get it wrong and the listing sits, the days-on-market clock starts working against you, and the eventual sale price ends up lower than it would have been priced correctly from day one.
The starting point is what has actually closed in the last 30 to 90 days. Same neighbourhood, same property type, same rough size, same condition tier. Recent sales, sorted, and weighted by how comparable they really are to your home.
We pull these from the OREB MLS sold archive, walk through each one with you, and explain the weighting. The point isn't to find a number that justifies what you'd like; it's to find the number the market is signalling.
Recent sales tell us what the market paid. Currently active listings tell us what your home is going to be competing with. We review the active comparables, what they look like online, what showings are like, and how long they've been listed.
Active inventory shows the buyer what their alternatives are. Pricing has to acknowledge that competition or the property gets skipped at the first round of showings.
Once we know the recent sold band and the current competition, the question becomes: do we list at the market and let buyers set the price, or do we list slightly under to manufacture competition?
Both work in different conditions. The under-list strategy creates urgency and frequently produces a bidding war, but it requires the marketing to drive a real volume of showings in the first week. The at-market strategy is steadier, less dramatic, and works better in quieter market windows.
Whichever direction we go, you see the math and the logic. The price is your decision. Our job is to make sure you're making it with the right information.
Some agents win listings by telling sellers what they want to hear: a high list price. Then, three weeks in with no offers, the price-reduction conversation starts. By the time the home sells, it's often below where it would have priced honestly on day one.
We tell you the number the comparables support, even when it's lower than you hoped. You're welcome to list higher if you want, and we'll do it, but you'll know going in what the market is signalling.
