Determining the selling price for your Toronto home is fairly easy to do. All it takes a bit of research to find comparable properties, which are called “comps” for short. The idea is to find homes that are a similar as possible to the one you want to sell.
Real estate lenders and appraisers go through this same process to create a valuation for a home. Finding three comps is the minimum requirement for a valid appraisal.
Step One — Make a List of Characteristics
Start by listing the characteristics of your home and include in the list these items:
1. The number of bedrooms and bathrooms.
2. The size of the home in square meters or square feet.
3. The year the home was built.
4. Adjust the price to take into account any special amenities that the home has, such as a wine cellar or a swimming pool. Deduct the cost of making any repairs that the buyer must do.
5. The quality of the neighborhood.
Step Two — Let a Professional Do the Work Working with a professional real estate professional, like those found at Lilford & Taylor, is an easier way to get information about comps. They have access to a searchable database of all the homes currently listed for sale. All they have to do is put in the characteristics of your home and search the database.
Real estate agents also have easier access to the prices that homes sold for and their sales history. This information is now legally allowed to be made available to the public but not yet easy to access in Ontario.
Step Three — Find Prices of Similar Homes
Historical selling prices are not such an important data point when determining the selling price for your Toronto home because homes are selling for an average of 102% of their asking price in Toronto. This means that the current asking prices for recent listings are likely to be very close to their selling price.
After finding three comps to use as a logical basis for making a decision, the next step for determining the selling price for your Toronto home is to think about your motivation.
Step Four — Are you a motivated seller?
A motivated seller has a powerful need to sell a home. It might be the need to buy another one, to relocate for a new job, or some personal challenge, such as going through a divorce. Motivated sellers can sell a property very quickly in a hot market like Toronto by simply discounting the listing price from the average price found for the comps.
Step Five — Discount to Sell Fast
The discount does not have to be much to sell a home in a market like Toronto. Sales statistics show that there are only 17 days for the median number of days, which homes are listed for sale. A 2% discount from the market value of the home will likely attract offers for the listing price and maybe even more.
Conclusion
If you are not highly motivated, just list the home for its actual value and it will probably sell in the first month that it is listed. If you are only trying to gauge the market, and do not care if the home sells quickly, list it for 10 % higher than its value to see what purchase offers come in.
Source
Where to find real estate sold data in Canada https://www.zolo.ca/news/sold-data-canada