Suze Cumming, founder of The Nature of Real Estate and Canada’s Real Estate Negotiation guru, answers Realtors’ questions on the first Friday of the month about negotiation tactics and working through tricky situations. Have a question for Suze? Send her an email.

A friend asked me for an opinion on the value of her investment condo. She was considering selling, and I offered my assessment based on the available market evidence.

As you can imagine, it was less than she had hoped.

I am not an active agent. She listed with someone else at a higher price. The property didn’t sell, and she now wishes things had unfolded differently.

I’ve changed some details to protect her privacy. But the experience has stayed with me because this story aligns so precisely with what many of you face every day.

I understood the pricing question well and felt confident in the accuracy and the defensibility of my CMA and my pricing recommendation. What I didn’t do was dig deeply into her underlying interests and emotional drivers. I simply gave her my number. She knew that this is my area of expertise, so I expected her to take my advice. And since she was my friend and not a potential client, I figured she could list at the recommended price or not. I didn’t feel I needed to convince her.

What I missed surfacing with her was critical to a successful decision.

I learned later that the condo was an important part of her retirement plan. At the price I recommended, the proceeds wouldn’t support the future she had imagined. It also represented independence after the end of a long marriage. There was a great deal wrapped up in this one investment.

For me, the number was an assessment of what a buyer would likely pay. For her, it raised difficult questions about what came next.

When the evidence is sound

Most experienced agents have sat with a seller who wants more than the market evidence supports. We explain the comparable sales, discuss current competition and present our recommendation. When the seller hesitates, we may return to the numbers with another example or a more detailed explanation.

Sometimes that helps. Sometimes we are answering a question the seller already understands while leaving the harder question untouched.

What would accepting this price mean for their plans?

This is why pricing requires more than a strong comparative market analysis. The CMA provides historical evidence. Our estimate of market value interprets that evidence in current conditions. Pricing strategy brings the seller’s objectives and circumstances into the decision about how to enter the market.

Those circumstances deserve as much curiosity as the property itself.

Looking beneath the position

In negotiation, I teach a framework called PIE: Position, Interests and Emotional Drivers.

The position is what someone says they want. In this case, a higher price.

The interests are what that outcome needs to accomplish. My friend was counting on the proceeds to help fund retirement. Understanding that doesn’t make a higher price achievable, but it explains why accepting a lower one was difficult.

Emotional drivers also influence decisions. A property can represent security, independence or years of hard work. We don’t need to make judgments about a client’s identity or private life to recognize that selling may carry significant personal meaning.

We do need to be willing to ask, listen and let what we learn influence our advice.

A question such as “What would selling at this price make possible, and what would it leave unresolved?” can open a conversation that another comparable sale cannot.

The answer may reveal a practical constraint we can help address. It may expose a trade-off that needs more thought. It may simply help us understand why the seller needs time.

Willingness can change

There is another important part of this story. During the listing, my friend did ask her agent to reduce the price to my recommendation. The agent advised a smaller price reduction, which had no effect on showing activity. Shortly before the listing expired, the agent proposed a further reduction and an extension. By then, the seller was unwilling to continue.

I wasn’t part of those conversations, so I can’t speak to all the reasoning behind them. But the sequence matters. Her willingness changed during the process.

A seller’s initial position doesn’t tell us where they will be three weeks later. Continuing to listen is part of the work. When someone becomes ready to reconsider, we need to understand what has shifted and help them assess the decision in front of them.

The condo remains unsold. She is now considering improvements before relisting, although money to complete them is limited. That proposal needs careful examination: the cost, the likely effect on value and whether it serves her financial goals.

It also deserves curiosity. What does she hope the improvements will accomplish? What other options might meet that need?

Helping someone find a way forward

These conversations are negotiation. They happen long before a buyer submits an offer.

We are helping people work through competing priorities, understand constraints and explore possibilities. We bring market knowledge and professional judgment. Clients bring knowledge of their lives, their needs and what they are willing to accept. A useful strategy needs both.

Sometimes that work reveals an option neither person initially considered. Sometimes it leads to a difficult decision made with clearer expectations. It can help a client move forward and give the agent a strategy they can confidently put into practice.

Understanding my friend’s circumstances hasn’t changed my opinion of the property’s value. It has changed my appreciation of the decision she was facing. If I had that first conversation again, I would start by asking what the sale needed to make possible.

Conversations like these ask a great deal of us. We need to recognize when more evidence will help, when to explore what’s beneath a position and how to turn that understanding into options a client can realistically consider. These are negotiation skills we can study, practise and strengthen. Developing them gives us a process to draw on when the conversation becomes difficult.

Knowing what a property is worth is essential. Helping someone decide what to do with that knowledge takes another kind of expertise.

Suze Cumming

Suze Cumming is the founder of The Nature of Real Estate and one of Canada’s leading educators in real estate negotiation. For more than a two decades, she has helped over 7,000 real estate professionals strengthen their negotiation skills through the Accredited Real Estate Negotiator (AREN) and Professional Real Estate Negotiator (PREN) programs, as well as coaching many of Canada’s top agents and teams.

Her work focuses on helping REALTORS® develop Negotiation Intelligence: the practical skills of preparation, communication, critical thinking, trust-building and strategic decision-making that lead to better outcomes for clients. As artificial intelligence reshapes the profession, Suze’s current work explores how AI can enhance professional judgment without replacing the human skills at the heart of successful negotiation. You can learn more about her learning ecosystem here. 

A passionate sailor and international yacht racer, Suze believes that excellence, whether on the water or at the negotiating table, comes from continual learning, thoughtful preparation and the ability to adapt as conditions change.