British Columbia · Seller Report
You do not set the price. You set the asking price. The market sets the price.
That distinction is the whole of pricing strategy. Your asking price is a marketing decision — it determines who sees your home, how many of them come, and what they think of it before they arrive.
Get it right and the market competes. Get it wrong and you spend your best two weeks proving it.
Part one
What price is actually built from
Recent comparable sales
Similar homes, genuinely nearby, sold recently — ideally within 90 days. Then adjusted for the real differences: lot size, age, condition, renovations, view, parking, exposure, whether there is a legal suite.
This is 80% of the answer, and it is the part sellers most want to argue with. The comparables do not care what you paid, what you spent, or what you need.
What is currently competing with you
A buyer is not comparing your home to what sold in June. They are comparing it to the four other homes they can view this Saturday. If one of those is better and cheaper, your price has a problem no marketing can solve.
The direction of the market
Sold data is inherently backwards-looking — a sale that closed last week was negotiated weeks earlier. In a moving market you have to adjust for the gap between the comparables and today. This is judgement, and it is the part where experience genuinely matters.
Your timeline
Someone who must be gone in 60 days prices differently from someone testing the market with no deadline. Both are legitimate. Being unclear about which you are is what produces a bad outcome.
Part two
Three numbers that are not market value
Your BC Assessment value
Produced for taxation, valued as of 1 July of the preceding year, using mass appraisal — nobody came inside. It can sit well above or well below what your home would sell for today, particularly if you have renovated or if the market has moved.
Watch out for
Buyers do sometimes quote it at you in a negotiation. Knowing exactly why it is not market value is useful ammunition.
What you paid, plus what you spent
Purchase price plus renovation cost is not value. Most renovations return less than they cost, some return almost nothing, and a few — very personal taste, a pool, over-improvement for the street — can reduce the buyer pool.
What your neighbour is asking
An asking price is an opinion, and often an untested one. If the house across the street has been listed at $1.1 million for four months, that is not evidence it is worth $1.1 million. It is fairly strong evidence it is not.
Part three
What overpricing actually costs
It is not just a delay. The damage compounds.
- Week 1–2: you spend your best exposureThis is when alerts fire, agents notice, and every buyer who has been searching for months looks immediately. You only get this window once, and an overpriced home spends it being rejected.
- Week 3–4: showings dry upThe buyers who were waiting have seen it. New buyers arriving see a listing that has been sitting.
- Week 5–6: the first reductionWhich arrives too late and is usually too small, because sellers reduce in increments rather than to the right number.
- Week 7 onwards: the price history becomes the storyBuyers’ agents can see the full listing history. Two reductions read as weakness, and the offers reflect it.
- The outcomeA home priced correctly on day one frequently sells faster and higher than the same home priced 8% high and reduced twice. That is the pattern, and it is remarkably consistent.
The one case for pricing high
A genuinely unusual property — an acreage, a heritage home, something with no real comparables — sometimes has to test the market, because nobody honestly knows what it is worth.
That is a deliberate strategy with an agreed review date and a planned adjustment. It is not the same as listing an ordinary townhouse 10% above the comparables and hoping.
Questions we get asked
Should I price just under a round number?
Usually, yes — but for search reasons more than psychological ones. Buyers filter in round bands. A home at $1,010,000 is invisible to everyone whose search caps at $1,000,000, and that can be a large share of your buyers. Pricing at $999,000 puts you in front of both groups.
What about pricing low to start a bidding war?
It works in a strong market with genuine competition, and it fails badly in a slow one — you can end up with one offer at your low asking price and no leverage at all. It also needs a clear offer-date strategy and disciplined handling. Discuss it deliberately; do not drift into it.
Can I add my renovation costs to the price?
Not directly. Kitchens, bathrooms and anything that improves how a home photographs and shows tend to return the most. Pools, very personal finishes, and improvements that push a home far beyond its street rarely return their cost. Ask before you spend, not after.
How often should I review the price?
Set a review date when you list — typically two to three weeks. Then judge it on evidence: showing numbers, online views and written feedback. Reviewing on a schedule is far better than reacting to a quiet fortnight.
Get the comparable sales for your street
Not an online estimate — the actual recent sold prices for homes like yours, with what we think they mean for your asking price. Free, and there is no obligation to list.
Call 778‑234‑2000 Prefer to write? Send a message insteadPlease note: Market conditions and comparable sales vary street by street and change continuously. This page is general information about British Columbia and Canadian rules, current at the time of writing, and is not legal, tax, financial or mortgage advice. Figures and programs change — confirm anything you intend to rely on with the relevant authority or a qualified professional. Sonny Bhinder is a licensed REALTOR®, not a lawyer, accountant or mortgage broker. Not intended to solicit properties currently listed for sale, or to cause a breach of an existing agency relationship.