How Should You Price Your Toronto Condo in 2026?
The way you price your condo in today's market has never been more important.
I used to play a lot of poker. Like, a lot. Vegas and I were very good friends and the poker room managers at most of the poker rooms around the Vegas Strip knew me by name. I went to Vegas very frequently when I was in my early/mid 20's, not to party (although I did my fair share of that, don't you worry!), but to play as much poker as I possibly could. And I absolutely loved it. There was something so intriguing to me about how people acted at a poker table that gave me insight into how people were in their regular lives. A gambler at the table was usually someone who was comfortable taking risks in the real world. The passive player who worried about every pot was probably a very conservative person when it came to their finances outside the poker room. The skill of reading people, knowing when they were bluffing, and figuring out how far you could push them in a pot before they would fold were all skills that translated so perfectly into so many other aspects of my real life for years to come, it actually surprised me. To this day, when someone is lying, a little alarm bell goes off in my head. I see a flinch in their forehead. I hear a momentary high-pitch in their voice. Those physical tells are extremely brief, but all those hours at the poker table staring at my opponents in every pot has made me so unbelievably perceptive of people and their mannerisms. I don't play nearly as much poker anymore. And I miss it.
This got me thinking about selling real estate. There's a connection, I promise. I negotiate deals for clients every day and there's a reason why real estate agents exist. We take the emotion out of the process (or at least, we're supposed to) and we negotiate directly with another person who may give off tells about what their client is willing to concede on. And while most of the negotiations today are done via email or text, I still very much prefer getting on the phone and hammering out the details in real-time. Because even if I'm not physically sitting across from someone looking them in the eye, like I would be at a poker table, I can still hear in someone's voice if there's more information that they're not sharing that, if I can get out of them, could help my clients land a better deal. And sometimes that's enough to get my clients an extra $5k or $10k they might not have otherwise gotten. That's the poker player in me.
When it comes to selling real estate in today's market, and specifically selling condos in Toronto in 2026, the negotiations can get intense. They can take time. Buyers and sellers will walk away, frustrated, and then come back a week or two later to restart discussions. It's a game of patience, persistence, and a little bit like a game of chicken to see who will give in first.
But regardless of how great a negotiator (or poker player) your agent thinks they are, there are still just three ways to price your condo in any market, and only one of them will yield the highest success rate today:
1 - Price above market value to "leave room" to negotiate: This is probably the most common approach most sellers will take in almost any market. If I'm willing to sell for $650k, I might as well list for $699k or $675k to "leave room" to come down when I get an offer. Sounds rational. Everyone wants to negotiate so why not leave enough buffer room so you end up selling for the price you actually want. But here's the problem in today's market - if all the data says your condo is worth $650k and you list for $699k, buyers just won't show up. Your place will look overpriced. And if you can't get buyers to even show up, you'll never actually have the opportunity to negotiate. You've already shown your hand and told buyers "I want more than what it's worth." And buyers will call your bluff and pass over your listing.
2 - Price below market value and try to get multiple offers: Yeah, we're not in this world anymore, and yet I still see this strategy attempted by condo sellers every week. "My place is worth $650k so let's price at $599k and try to get a bidding war!" But why would any condo buyer fight for a specific property when there are literally hundreds of other options out there? Unless you have something so unbelievably desirable that you know there will be a line out the door even in the slowest of markets, underpricing your condo with the hopes of a bidding war is a losing strategy in today's market. For my poker fans, it's like going all in with a gut-shot straight draw - sure, you could hit it. But more often than not, it's a losing play.
3 - Pricing at market value: This is a no-brainer strategy that, on the surface, sounds like it should work. You've run the comps, done the analysis, and every datapoint says your condo is worth $650k. So you list at $650k and after a couple weeks, you get an offer... for $575k. This is the market we're in. No matter what price you list at, no matter how reasonable it may seem, buyers will negotiate. So you're in a bit of a Catch-22; Price high to leave room to negotiate but nobody shows up, or price at market value, finally get some activity but get lowball offers. This is the trouble with being a seller in today's condo market. It feels like you just can't win.
So what do you do as a seller? I've said this to all my sellers for years: Presentation and Price will always be the most important marketing strategies, regardless of the market. Make sure your listing is the best looking listing out there. And price it in such a way that any serious buyer will put it at the top of their list. In the slow condo market we're in now (and have been in for quite some time), Presentation and Price is more important than ever. Price in a manner that you can defend. Do your homework so your agent can defend why you are priced at $699k when every comparable out there says your place is not worth more than $650k. And if your answer is "we wanted to leave room to negotiate", you're just shooting yourself in the foot. Price to perfection, price to be the most attractive option for buyers, and still be prepared to negotiate. Because that's the world we're in.
And there's one more strategy that has been added to my arsenal recently that's probably the hardest one for any seller to master:
Patience.
Have you checked out my previous blog posts?
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Your Toronto condo lover,
Adil Dharssi
Sales Representative
Skybound Realty, Brokerage
Direct: 647-223-1679 (call/text)
Email: Adil@AdilKnowsCondos.com
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