They Offered $800K. They Paid $890K. Here's What Happened Between Those Two Numbers.
Low-Balling a Well-Priced Home Doesn't Work. Here's the Proof.
I listed a bungalow in Beamsville, Ontario recently. Beautiful home — tasteful finishes, solid updates throughout, character in all the right places. Nothing ostentatious. Just a well-done, well-loved property that deserved to be sold properly.
We priced it at $898,000. That wasn't a gut feeling. That was homework. My client and I knew the numbers cold. We'd watched other comparable homes sit stubbornly in the low-to-mid $900s, unsold, unwanted. We weren't going there. Our number was $898K, and we felt somewhere in the $890s was the realistic target. We were right.
Thirty Days Isn't Failure Anymore
We were on market for roughly 30 days. In 2025 and into 2026, that's not a red flag — it's a reality. Days on market doesn't carry the same weight it once did. A first conditional offer came in, went nowhere, and died. Standard stuff. Then the right buyers showed up.
An agent brought in a young couple. They came back for a second showing — and brought the family. That's a buying signal you don't ignore.
The Lowball That Backfired in Real Time
Then came the call. The agent — a good guy, clearly experienced — floated a verbal offer of $800,000. I told him, plainly: low-balling a correctly priced home doesn't work. It rarely does. And when a buyer genuinely wants the house, it can backfire badly. Starting a negotiation by offending the seller is not a strategy. It's a mistake.
He understood. He went back to his clients.
Their first written offer: $825,000. We didn't sign it back. Too far. Message sent.
They came back at $835,000 within hours. Three offers in an afternoon. At this point, I knew something important: they wanted this house. So I went back to my client and said exactly that. We've got them. Let's reel them in.
We signed the $835K offer back at $895,000 — essentially our asking price — to make our position crystal clear. They let it sit overnight, came back the next day with $880-something, and we closed it accepted at approximately $890,000.
They started verbally at $800,000. They closed at $890,000. Do the math.
What This Actually Means If You're Buying or Selling
If a home is overpriced by $200,000, lowball away — maybe that's the wake-up call a seller needs. But if a property is priced accurately by an agent who's done the work, coming in $90,000 under asking doesn't make you a savvy negotiator. It makes you someone who almost lost the house they wanted.
The lesson on the sell side is equally clear: know your number, hold your number, and work with someone who can do the homework to back it up — not just on listings, but on every home you're evaluating as a buyer.
There are great deals in this market right now in Burlington, Oakville, Hamilton, and across the GTA. There are also homes priced exactly where they should be. You need someone who can tell the difference and knows what to do with that information.
That's the job. That's what I do.
