During a recent Certified Coaching Thursday session with over 300 agents across the country at Compass, we focused on one of the most important skills in today’s market:
Winning the pricing conversation.
At the end of the session, I opened it up for live Q&A.
One agent asked a question that almost every listing agent faces:
“Consumers get so caught up on price per square foot. How do you handle that conversation?”
It’s a great question — because it reflects how today’s consumer thinks.
They’re analytical.
They’re informed.
And they’re looking at averages.
Here’s how I answered.
Price Per Square Foot Is a Metric — Not a Valuation
Price per square foot is helpful.
I never dismiss it.
In fact, I validate it first.
It’s a clean, numbers-driven way to look at the market. And in an era where consumers can plug data into AI and instantly generate averages, it feels objective.
But here’s the problem:
It doesn’t explain variation.
And variation is where value lives.
You can calculate a neighborhood’s average price per square foot in seconds.
What that number doesn’t tell you is why two homes with identical square footage sell for dramatically different prices.
That’s where professionals come in.
Vertical Markets: Same Size, Wildly Different Outcomes
In urban condo markets, price per square foot can swing dramatically depending on:
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Floor height
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Natural light
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Exposure
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Noise
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Proximity to elevators
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Amenities
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And especially — the view
During the session, I shared an example from a coastal market: a building where one side faces the intercoastal and the other faces a busy road and parking lot.
Same building. Similar layouts.
Completely different value proposition.
Price per square foot alone cannot account for that nuance.
Suburban Markets: Context Multiplies Variation
In single-family neighborhoods, variation often comes from:
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Condition and level of renovation
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Year built
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Lot placement within the community
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School boundaries
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Layout functionality
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Proximity to roads or open space
Two 2,500-square-foot homes may look identical on paper.
But one may feel like a turnkey opportunity — and the other like a project.
That difference matters.
And it shows up in pricing.
The Modern Value Proposition
One of the subtle points I made during the Q&A was this:
You could take raw data, drop it into a chatbot, and get an average price per square foot instantly.
The number is easy.
Interpretation is rare.
Our job as professionals isn’t to reject the metric.
It’s to interpret the nuance behind it.
When you validate the consumer’s logic and then explain why variation exists, the pricing conversation becomes collaborative instead of confrontational.
And that’s how you win it.
In a market where consumers have more data than ever, authority doesn’t come from having access to numbers.
It comes from understanding context.
Price per square foot is a starting point.
Professional interpretation is what creates value.
