For homeowners · before you sign the listing

How do I know if my agent priced my house right?

The number came from a comparative market analysis, a CMA. Here is what one is made of, where it quietly goes wrong, and five questions that show whether yours holds up.

What a CMA is

A short list of homes like yours that sold recently, plus the ones for sale now, set beside your home and adjusted for the differences: a finished basement, a smaller lot, a kitchen from 1994. The list price is argued from that. It is not an appraisal, and a good agent will say so on the first page.

Most agents build it before they meet you, and many build it before they have seen inside. On seventy-eight recorded calls with listing agents, about thirty said they walk in with a price ready, and eighteen said they will not price a home until they have seen what the owner has done to it. Both are defensible. What matters is which one yours did, and whether the inside of your house has been counted.

Three things that quietly go wrong

An asking price counted as a sale

The neighbour's listing at one number is a hope. The sale two streets over at another number is a fact. A CMA can print both in the same column, and unless every row says which it is, the hopeful ones pull the average up. In most of Canada, sold prices are not public; your agent's board has them, and the portals mostly do not.

Across the board figures published for 2024 to 2026, homes in most Canadian provinces have sold for roughly 97 to 99 cents on the asking dollar. A pricing case that treats asking prices as sales starts a few percent high before anyone has argued anything.

Old comparables

A sale from eighteen months ago in a market that has moved is a different piece of evidence from one that closed last month. The date belongs beside every row, and if it is missing, ask for it.

Starting from your number instead of the market's

Fourteen of the seventy-five agents told us that sellers regularly want more than the comparables support. Seven said they have taken a listing at the seller's number and cut it later. One in five had a listing on the call that they themselves called overpriced.

Neither agent was being careless. Both were describing the moment a homeowner should recognise: the price started from what the owner needed, not from what the street has paid.

What about the estimate online?

In seventy-eight recorded conversations, not one agent used an automated portal estimate as a reference. The one who mentioned one said it "has always been wrong". Two identical houses differ by the thing the model cannot see: the one ten feet closer to the road, the suite, the smell of the basement. Treat the online figure as a starting point for a question, not as a second opinion.

Five questions to ask your agent

1. Which homes are these, and why these?

   You should be able to picture each one. If a comparable is on a busier street or has a suite yours lacks, ask how that was counted.

2. Is each row a sale or an asking price, and when?

   The answer should be on the page. If it is not, the number is resting on evidence you cannot see.

3. Did the number start from the comparables, or from what I said I hoped for?

   An honest agent will tell you. Several told us.

4. What happens if there are no showings in the first two weeks?

   Agents disagree here, and the disagreement is worth hearing. One told us a price cut means the agent did a poor job at the start. Another said that in some markets there is simply not a buyer yet. Ask which market yours is.

5. Is this an appraisal?

   No, and it should not claim to be. A CMA is an argument for a price. An appraisal is a licensed valuation. If you need the second, it is a separate document from a separate person.