Hope Is Not a Pricing Strategy: What Vancouver Sellers Need to Hear

Written in November 2025. Some details have changed since, so check current numbers before you act on this.

Selling in Vancouver right now takes strategy, not hope: listings are piling up, buyers are picky, and an overpriced home just sits.

Let me rip the Band‑Aid off: sellers in Vancouver are walking into a firing squad, because the market’s changed, buyers are asleep, and overpriced homes are dying on the vine.

If you’re selling (or thinking of), this isn’t time for “hope.” It’s time for strategy.

✅ Has the Vancouver market flipped to favour buyers?

• Inventory is ballooning. We’ve got more listings than we’ve seen in a decade. (VREG)
• Sales are collapsing. Mortgage Professional reported that March 2025 saw only ~2,091 transactions, 37% below the 10‑year seasonal average.
• Yet prices aren’t crashing (yet), they’re sticky, flat. That means competition and time are your hidden enemies. (CityNews Vancouver)

Translation: buyers aren’t desperate. But they are picky. They won’t bite on fluff or fantasy pricing.

When I recorded this video in June 2025, a lot of buyers in my database were waiting for a crash, and I told them I didn’t think double-digit drops were coming. Vancouver had a lot of inventory and very few sales, and pricing was still mostly holding up. If you bought in the last 5 years, though, you’re likely losing money. I had seven listings at the time, and five of those sellers weren’t in great positions because they all bought inside that window. It’s also a lot worse back east, where Ontario, and Toronto specifically, was being hurt far more than we were.

Why can’t I even get a lowball offer?

That’s a common question from sellers. I’ve had multiple listings with over a hundred people through, and people flying out from Saskatchewan and Calgary to see a home two or three times, and still no offer. Another of my properties was shown over 70 times before we finally got one. Buyers don’t need to lowball you, because there’s so much inventory that they can go to the second or third home on their list that fits all their criteria, and not waste time negotiating. They just move on and put an offer somewhere else. That’s what we’re seeing on the ground.

✅ Why do overpriced homes sit unsold in Vancouver?

• Zombie listings are everywhere, properties that never sold get relisted with minor tweaks. Buyers see through this ruse instantly.
• Unrealistic seller expectations are causing actual agents to turn down listings because sellers won’t listen. (VREG)
• Open houses? Crickets. Listings vanish into MLS® purgatory. Buyers want value, not pipe dreams.

If your pricing isn’t tightly aligned with comparable sales & real buyer psychology, you’ll sit. And sitting means money leaking, maintenance, taxes, mortgage, opportunity cost. The seller net sheet shows what you'd walk away with.

✅ How do you sell a home in a slow Vancouver market?

1. Get hyper‑local comps. Don’t use city averages, your block, your view, your layout. Start with What's my home worth?
2. Price clean and assertive. Undercut the dead weight listings. Be one of the few that sells.
3. Marketing with teeth. Use video, aggressive digital ads, show off data, not fluff.
4. Stagger incentives. Closing cost credits, flexible possession dates, tip the balance.
5. Be first to adjust. When comps drop, you adjust. Don’t wait for competition to force your hand.

Buyers shop the monthly payment, so price for that

Whether a home is worth $300,000 or $3 million, the buyer’s really looking at the monthly cost, and if they can make that work, the purchase price matters less. People look at their pre-approvals and their budgets. A couple of years ago, when rates were at all-time lows, buyers could afford so much more each month that they were willing to spend more. The old thinking says dirt goes up no matter what, but it’s really predicated on lending. Rates went up, and we gave back gains. Keep that in mind when you’re deciding what your home’s worth to the person who has to finance it.

Is buyer confidence coming back?

There was some good news when I made this video. Confidence perked up dramatically in May 2025, and the Bloomberg Nanos confidence index recorded the sharpest 3-week increase in its survey history, with its real estate outlook also showing signs of life. I think part of that was the federal election giving the country a direction. I was starting to see it myself, with three offers in one week and showing requests on a couple of properties that had been dead. If you’re a buyer, watch this closely, because inventory is the first thing that gets swallowed up when confidence comes back, and pricing follows after that. If you’ve been looking for years and can’t find the home, it may not exist. Some buyers in my database have looked at over 700 properties. You’ll either have to adjust your expectations or raise your budget. I still think we were a ways away from prices moving up, and that one rate drop wouldn’t supercharge the market on its own.

For sellers, be patient and trust your agent. This is territory nobody has really been through in the last 10 years, and it’s just hard to get people to put something on paper.

Because in this market, speed wins. The longer you wait, the more your window slams shut.

✅ Your Edge? Insider Market Pulse + Tactical Moves

You're not just another seller, you can be the one who exploits a shifting market. Because:

• I’m tracking live sales, inventory, buyer sentiment daily.
• I know which sub‑markets are already oversaturated vs. still undercut.
• I know how buyers filter out most listings, and we’ll make yours survive.

Let’s convert this “chaos” into your sale. My seller page walks you through how I sell a home, and the Kyle Mark Report shows the real time to sell in your area.

📞 Book a 30‑Minute Strategy Call, we’ll map your price, timeline, negotiation plan, and how to beat the dead wood on MLS®.

📅 Book your 30-minute strategy call now