If you're thinking about selling your home, one of the first things you’ll probably do is start looking at what’s happening around you.
Maybe your neighbour recently sold. Maybe there’s a similar home listed around the corner. Or maybe you remember what a comparable property sold for last year and have started using that number as a starting point for your own home.
That’s a completely natural place to start. But there’s something important to keep in mind: the last home that sold isn’t necessarily your best comparison.
When your home hits the market, you’re not just competing with what sold six months ago. You’re competing with the homes buyers can choose from right now.
And that can change the conversation quite a bit.
Start With What Buyers Can Actually Choose From
Think about it from a buyer’s perspective for a minute. If you have a $700,000 budget, you’re probably not looking at one home and deciding whether it’s worth $700,000. You’re looking at several homes, often across different neighbourhoods and sometimes even different communities, and trying to figure out which one gives you the most for your money. One might have a newer kitchen, another might have a larger yard, another might have a finished basement, and another might simply be in the location you’ve always wanted. Your home is going to be part of that comparison whether you want it to be or not. That’s why when we’re talking about what your home should be listed for, I don’t just want to know what the house down the street sold for. I want to know what your potential buyer could buy instead.
When looking at that competition, there are a few things that help paint a much clearer picture:
What homes are currently listed in your price range
What similar homes have recently sold for
How long comparable properties are taking to sell
What features and upgrades those homes offer
How your home compares in condition and presentation
Whether new construction is competing for the same buyers
Looking at all of these together gives us a much better idea of where your home fits than relying on a single comparable sale.
Sold Prices Are Important — But They’re Only Part of the Picture
Recent sales are an important piece of the pricing puzzle because they tell us what buyers have actually paid for similar homes. But a sold listing is also a snapshot of the market at a particular point in time. The number of homes available may have been different, buyer demand may have been different, and the homes competing for those buyers may have looked completely different from what’s available today. That doesn’t make those sales irrelevant — far from it. It simply means we need to understand the context around them rather than assuming that one sale automatically sets the value for another home.
This is especially important when sellers say, “The house down the street sold for $725,000, so ours should be worth $725,000 too.” Maybe it is. Maybe it’s worth more. Maybe it’s worth less. It depends on the differences between the homes and, just as importantly, what buyers have available to them now. A home that sold for $725,000 when there were only a handful of comparable properties on the market may face a very different environment if there are now several similar homes competing for the same buyer. That’s why I like to look at both the history of the market and what’s happening in front of us today.
Put Yourself in the Buyer’s Shoes
One of the easiest ways to understand this is to stop looking at your home like a seller for a minute and look at it like a buyer. Imagine you have the amount of money your home is going to be listed for, and start shopping as though you were making the decision yourself. What else could you buy? Maybe there’s another home with a newer kitchen or a bigger garage. Maybe there’s one with a larger yard, a finished basement or more bedrooms. Maybe there’s a home just down the road that is priced $25,000 less. Now ask yourself the question that buyers will ultimately be asking: “Why would I choose this home over that one?”
That doesn’t mean your home needs to have every feature another property offers. In fact, that’s almost impossible. What it does mean is that we need to understand where your home stands out and make sure those strengths are clear. Maybe it’s the location, the layout, the backyard, the garage, the renovations, the amount of finished space or simply the way the home feels when someone walks through the door. Buyers are looking at the entire package, and our job is to make sure they can see the value in that package.
Price Isn’t the Only Thing Buyers Notice
It’s easy to think that pricing is the whole strategy: choose a number, put the sign in the yard and wait for the offers. If only it were that simple. Price is incredibly important, but so is the experience a buyer has when they first see your home online and then walk through it in person. Two homes can be listed for the exact same price and receive completely different reactions because one feels bright, clean, spacious and move-in ready while the other feels cluttered, dark or like it needs a long list of updates. The homes may actually be more similar than they appear on paper, but buyers aren't just comparing bedrooms and square footage. They’re thinking about what it would feel like to live there and how much work they’ll need to do after they move in.
That’s why preparing your home before listing can make such a difference. And no, I’m not saying you need to renovate your entire house or spend tens of thousands of dollars getting it ready. In many cases, the improvements that make the biggest difference are the simple ones you’ve stopped noticing because you live there every day. Decluttering, improving lighting, touching up paint, taking care of small repairs, cleaning windows and fixtures, refreshing the front entry and making sure the yard is looking its best can all help a buyer see the home more clearly. The goal isn’t to make your home look like everyone else’s. It’s to make sure the features that make your home a great place to live are the things buyers notice first.
Your First Showing Happens Online
Before a buyer ever steps through your front door, they’ve probably already seen your home online. They’ve looked at the photos, checked the price, scrolled through the rooms and, chances are, compared your listing with several others before deciding whether it’s worth booking a showing. In a market where buyers have options, that first impression matters. Professional photography, thoughtful staging, a clear listing description and a strong first photo all work together to help your home stand out when someone is scrolling through their search results.
This is also where pricing and presentation really come together. A beautifully presented home that is priced well outside what buyers see as reasonable may still get overlooked. On the other hand, a home that is priced appropriately but poorly presented may not get the attention it deserves. The goal is to have the price and presentation tell the same story: this is what the home offers, this is what it looks like, and this is why the asking price makes sense.
“We Can Always Lower the Price Later” Can Be Risky
I hear this one quite a bit: “Why don’t we start a little higher and see what happens? We can always lower it later.” I completely understand the thinking. Nobody wants to leave money on the table, and it can feel safer to start high and see if someone is willing to pay it. The challenge is that your first few weeks on the market are important. Your listing is new, buyers are paying attention, and people who have been searching for a home like yours are more likely to notice it. If the price doesn’t line up with what buyers are seeing elsewhere, they may simply decide not to book a showing.
Once a listing has been sitting for several weeks, the conversation can change. Instead of buyers wondering whether your home could be the right fit, they may start wondering why it hasn’t sold. A price reduction can certainly bring renewed attention, but it doesn’t necessarily undo the time the home has already spent on the market. That doesn’t mean you should underprice your home or automatically choose the lowest number in your area. It means the initial price should be supported by the home and make sense within the current competition before you put it on the market, rather than relying on a future price reduction to correct the strategy.
Your Home Might Be Competing With New Construction Too
Depending on your community and price range, your competition may not even be another resale home. New construction can also be part of the conversation, particularly for buyers who are deciding whether they want something established or something brand new. A new home might offer modern finishes, energy-efficient features and warranty coverage, while an established home might offer a larger lot, mature landscaping, a finished basement, established amenities or a location that a buyer can’t replicate with a new build.
Neither option is automatically better. It comes down to what matters most to the individual buyer and how the overall value compares. If we know that buyers looking at your home are also considering new construction, that becomes part of the pricing and marketing conversation. We want to make sure we’re highlighting the things your home offers that a new build may not, while also being realistic about the areas where another option might have an advantage.
So, What Makes Your Home the Right Choice?
This is really the question we’re trying to answer when we prepare a home for sale. Not simply, “What did the house down the street sell for?”, but “When a buyer sees my home alongside everything else they could buy, why would they choose this one?” Maybe it’s the location, the layout, the backyard, the garage, the renovations, the finished basement, the natural light or the fact that the home has been exceptionally well maintained. Usually, it’s a combination of several things, and those details are what help create the perception of value.
Once we understand those strengths, we can make better decisions about how the home should be presented and positioned. Sometimes that means making a few changes before listing. Sometimes it means highlighting a feature that gets overlooked. And sometimes it simply means being honest about where the home fits compared with the competition. The goal isn’t to convince a buyer that your home is worth more than every other home on the market. It’s to make it easy for the right buyer to understand why your home is worth the asking price.
The Right Price Is About More Than a Number
There isn’t one magic formula that works for every home, and there shouldn’t be. Your home’s value is influenced by its location, size, condition, features, recent sales and, perhaps most importantly, what buyers have to choose from at the time you list. That’s why I like to look at the market from the buyer’s side. If I were shopping for a home at this price, what would I be comparing it to? What would make me choose this home? Where does this property stand out? And are those strengths reflected in the asking price?
Those questions help us arrive at a strategy that makes sense rather than simply picking a number because another home sold for it. The right price isn’t necessarily the highest number you can put on the listing. It’s the number that makes sense when you consider the home itself, the current competition and what buyers are likely to see when they start shopping.
Thinking About Selling?
Before you decide what your home should be listed for, take a look at what buyers are actually seeing today. Look at the active listings, recent sales and homes that have sold quickly, as well as the ones that have been sitting. Pay attention to what those properties offer, how they’re presented and where they’re priced. This gives you a much more realistic picture of the market than simply looking at one sale and assuming your home should command the same price.
Your home doesn’t have to be the cheapest one on the market, and it doesn’t have to be the most upgraded. It just needs to make sense to the buyer who is comparing it with everything else available. When you understand what your home is really competing against, you can make much smarter decisions about pricing, preparation and presentation.
If you’re thinking about selling in Airdrie, Calgary or the surrounding communities, I’d be happy to help you look at your home from a buyer’s perspective and figure out where it fits in today’s market. Sometimes getting the right price isn’t about looking at what sold down the street. It’s about understanding what your buyer can choose from today.