Before making an offer on a home in London, Ontario, four pieces of homework protect you from overpaying: check active listings to confirm the home is priced reasonably, compare average sold prices to list prices, tour several comparable homes, and review how long listings are sitting.

In London's current buyer-friendly market — roughly five months of inventory, a median of around 24 days on market, and homes selling close to 2.6% below asking — buyers who do this homework hold the advantage. Ty Lacroix, Broker at The Envelope Real Estate Group, has spent 24 years making sure buyers know what a home is actually worth before they sign.

Before you make an offer on a home in London, Ontario, there are four things worth knowing first. But underneath all four sits one question that decides almost everything:

How motivated is the seller — and how motivated are you?

Start With Motivation

Has the home been on the market for more than 30 days? That could mean the seller isn't truly motivated. It could mean the home is overpriced and hasn't moved. Or it could mean the seller is now highly motivated and ready to deal. The same number of days on market can point in three completely different directions, and knowing which one you're looking at changes your whole approach.

Then turn the question on yourself. If you've been transferred for work, your own home is already sold, your lease is ending, there's another child on the way, or you've had enough of renting — you may be more motivated than you realize. And a motivated buyer who hasn't admitted it to themselves tends to overpay.

For context, London is currently a buyer-friendly market: roughly 5 months of inventory, with homes selling at about 97.4% of asking price, meaning the average home goes for around 2.6% below list price. That's a market where patience and preparation are rewarded — but only if you know how to read it.

Keep Your Emotions Out of the Negotiation

If your heart is pounding over a home and you can't stop picturing yourself in it, you will not negotiate well. That's not a character flaw — it's human. But it's also expensive.

Sometimes the pull isn't even about the house itself. It's the layout, the street, the school, or a lifestyle you've imagined. Recognizing what is pulling at you helps you separate the home's actual value from what your emotions say it's worth. Those are two different numbers, and the gap between them is real money.

The single best protection against this? Besides my phone number — I couldn't resist — it's solid comparable sales and market data for the area and the wider market. Facts are the antidote to a racing heart.

The Four Things to Do Before You Offer

1. Look at the area's active listings.
Is the home you're considering priced within the range of other homes for sale nearby? If it is, you know you're starting from a reasonable place. If it's well above, you need to understand why before you offer a dollar.

2. Compare average sold prices to list prices.
List price is what a seller hopes for. The sold price is what buyers actually paid. In London right now, that gap averages about 2.6%, but it varies by neighbourhood and property type. Knowing the real local figure tells you where a fair offer begins.

3. Tour several other listings in the area.
You can't judge value in isolation. How does your choice compare to what else is on the market? Is it in similar condition? Better sited, bigger, smaller, better landscaped? Seeing the alternatives is the fastest way to understand whether a property is a bargain, a stretch, or just right.

4. Look at average market times for the area.
How long are similar homes sitting before they sell? When the median is around 24 days, and the home has been listed for 45, that tells you something. When it sells in a week, that tells you something else. Days on market is a quiet signal of both pricing and demand.

You May — Or May Not — Be Ready

After doing this homework, you might be ready to make a strong, confident offer. Or you might discover the home isn't what you thought, or the price doesn't hold up against the comparables. Either outcome is a win because both are based on facts rather than feelings.

The Gap This Doesn't Close

Here's the honest part. You can do all four of these things on your own — and you should. But raw numbers don't interpret themselves. Two homes can show the same days on market for opposite reasons. A list-to-sold gap can mean a motivated seller or a quietly overpriced one. Reading what the data actually means for the specific home in front of you is where 24 years of watching this market matters.

That's the work I do before any of my buyers write an offer: pull the comparables, read the seller's likely motivation, and tell you what the home is genuinely worth — not what the listing says, and not what your heart says.

If you're getting close to making an offer on a home in London and you want a second, experienced set of eyes on the numbers before you commit, that's exactly the conversation to have first.

Call Ty Lacroix or Michael Theisen at 519-435-1600 or here.

How Buying a Home in London, Ontario Actually Works — From First Conversation to Keys in Hand

When selling a home in London, Ontario, the sellers who get the most money are the ones who stop seeing their house through their own eyes and start seeing it through a buyer's. The average buyer views 8 to 12 homes before choosing one, and forms a first impression within 7 to 10 seconds of walking through the door. Presentation, cleanliness, and emotional connection are what separate a home that sells for close to asking from one that sits.

Ty Lacroix, Real Estate Broker at The Envelope Real Estate Group, has spent 24 years helping London sellers see their homes the way buyers do — before it costs them.

When you sell your home in London, Ontario, the single most useful thing you can do is stop being the owner for a few minutes and become the buyer.

That's harder than it sounds. You've lived here. You know which floorboard creaks, and you stopped noticing it years ago. You walk past the scuff on the wall every day without seeing it. But a buyer walking in for the first time sees all of it — and they decide fast. Research shows buyers form a first impression within 7 to 10 seconds of entering a home. In a scroll-driven market, online photos get even less time: two to five seconds before a buyer keeps scrolling or books a showing.

That's the window. That's what you're competing for.

Presentation Is the Product

A crucial part of selling anything is how it's presented, and a home is no different. To compete with every other home on the market, yours has to show better than theirs.

You can't change your room layout, lot size, or location. But you have complete control over the first impression — and that impression matters whether your home is an apartment, a townhome, or a detached house, and whether it's listed at $400,000 or $1,500,000. The price bracket doesn't change the rule. I've shown homes at every price point over 24 years, and I can tell you the appealing ones and the off-putting ones had very little to do with what they cost.

Untidiness, clutter, burnt-out bulbs, cobwebs in the furnace room, a dirty furnace filter, a lingering smell — these are red flags. Individually, they seem small. Together, they tell a buyer the home hasn't been cared for, and that single impression gets priced into every offer you receive, if you receive one at all.

The numbers back this up. According to the National Association of Realtors, 81% of buyer's agents say a well-presented home makes it easier for buyers to picture the property as their own. Homes presented this way spend significantly less time on the market — by some industry measures, 73% less. And presentation isn't about expensive renovations. Decluttering, deep cleaning, and good lighting are the highest-impact, lowest-cost moves a seller can make.

Why You're Really Selling

Here's the part most sellers miss. You are not just selling a house. You are selling shelter, a lifestyle, and a feeling. Buyers come to your front door wanting to find the right home. Your job is not to give them a reason to keep looking.

This matters because buyers are comparison shoppers — just as you were when you bought. The average buyer looks at 8 to 12 properties before making a decision, and 97% of them start that search online before they ever step inside. By the time a buyer reaches your door, a story has already formed in their mind from your photos. A bright, tidy, intentional home invites them to keep imagining their life there. A dark or cluttered one puts them on guard, looking for problems and ready to negotiate hard.

Buyers don't fall in love with square footage. They fall in love with how a home makes them feel. When a buyer lingers — when they start picturing where their furniture goes, where the grandkids would sleep, where they'd have their morning coffee — they are getting closer to an offer.

Think like a buyer. Don't give them a reason to leave.

The Gap Most Sellers Can't See on Their Own

Here's the honest difficulty: you cannot fully see your own home the way a buyer does. You're too close to it. You love it, or you're tired of it, but either way you've lost the buyer's fresh eyes — and that blind spot is exactly where money gets left on the table.

That's the part of the job I take seriously. Before your home is ever listed, I walk it the way a buyer will, and I tell you the truth about what they'll notice — not to find fault, but to find the remedy while there's still time to fix it. Most sellers are surprised by what they'd never have caught themselves. Some of it costs nothing to correct. All of it affects what a buyer is willing to pay.

If you're thinking about selling in London this year and you want to know what a buyer will actually see when they walk through your door, that's a conversation worth having before the sign goes up — not after.

You don't have to guess what buyers will think. Let's walk your home the way they will — and fix what matters before it costs you. Reach out for a private conversation, no pressure and no pitch.

Want more home seller ideas and strategies?