How the Right Pricing Strategy Sold This Saskatoon Home $25,000 Over Asking
Selling a home while simultaneously buying another can be one of the most stressful moves a family makes. That was the situation for a young Saskatoon family I recently worked with. I’m Scott Ziegler, a Saskatoon REALTOR®, and I recently helped a young family sell their first home together in the Exhibition neighbourhood while simultaneously purchasing their next home. The two transactions were connected, which meant getting their existing home sold quickly—and for the right price—was an important part of making their move work.
The challenge was deciding how to list and price their Saskatoon home as the market was changing. We were coming out of a very competitive spring real estate market and moving into the more balanced summer market. During the spring, delayed offer presentations and aggressive pricing strategies had been common as sellers tried to generate multiple offers. But market conditions were beginning to shift. We had to decide whether to follow that same strategy or list the property traditionally at a price supported by its actual market value.
Before making that decision, I went deep into the comparable sales and current listing data—not only for Saskatoon, but specifically for the Exhibition neighbourhood and that quadrant of the city. Two things stood out. There were very few comparable homes available in this price range, and even fewer offered a basement suite like this property did. That helped us identify both the likely buyer for the home and where the opportunity existed. Instead of artificially pricing the home low and holding offers, we listed it at what the data indicated was fair market value and allowed buyers to make an offer immediately. The goal was simple: price it correctly, expose it to the market and create strong demand from day one.
The result came faster than we expected. The very first showing produced an unconditional cash offer for $25,000 over the asking price. The buyers recognized that the property was difficult to replace at that price point and understood there would likely be significant competition if they waited. Rather than risk losing the home or becoming part of a bidding war, they made a strong offer immediately. For my sellers, that meant an immediate, condition-free sale and the certainty they needed to move forward with the home they were purchasing. The result wasn't simply about receiving an offer over asking—it was about choosing a listing strategy that matched what was actually happening in that specific segment of the Saskatoon real estate market.
That distinction matters because the Saskatoon real estate market isn't the same market all year long. Winter is historically slower and can create opportunities for buyers. Spring is typically our busiest and most competitive market. Summer often represents a transition toward more balanced conditions, followed by a fall market that generally continues to slow as we approach winter. This Exhibition sale happened right in that spring-to-summer transition. A listing strategy that worked exceptionally well six weeks earlier wasn't automatically the right strategy for this home. Understanding the neighbourhood, the price range, the likely buyer and where Saskatoon was in its seasonal real estate cycle allowed us to make a different decision—and in this case, that decision helped produce a cash, unconditional sale for $25,000 over asking.
