Calgary Answers · Buying · Offers

How Is an Offer Priceactually calculated?

Not by taking a percentage off the asking price. The asking price is an opinion; comparable sales are evidence.

It starts with what actually sold

The foundation is recent sales of genuinely similar homes nearby — sold prices, not asking prices. Similar means comparable in type, size, age, condition and situation. Recency matters: in a moving market, sales more than about three months old need interpreting rather than accepting.

Then it gets adjusted

No two homes are identical, so each comparable is adjusted toward the subject property — for finished basement, garage, lot size and position, condition and updates, and outlook. A comparable that sold for $700,000 but backs a busy road while your subject backs green space is not telling you the subject is worth $700,000.

Then market conditions

The same evidence supports a different offer depending on whether homes in that segment are selling above asking in days or sitting for months. Sales-to-new-listings and months of supply describe that. Live figures →

And finally the situation

How long it has been listed, whether it has been reduced or relisted, whether a previous deal collapsed, how motivated the seller appears, and whether anyone else is writing. This is where listing history matters and where a public portal tells you nothing. Reading motivation →

The output is not a single number. It is a range — what the evidence supports, what it would still be reasonable to pay, and the point past which you are buying someone else's optimism.