Paying Over List Price Doesn’t Always Mean Overpaying
BY Scott Moore, Realtor | May 15, 2026There’s a lot of fear in today’s Winnipeg real estate market around bidding wars.
Buyers hear stories every day about homes selling for $100,000++ over asking and immediately assume the market has lost its mind. They get nervous. Defensive. Sometimes even angry. Nobody wants to feel like they overpaid for the biggest purchase of their life.
And honestly? I get it.
But here’s the part most buyers are missing: right now, a huge number of homes in Winnipeg are intentionally being listed well below market value to attract attention and generate multiple offers.
A home worth $500,000 might be listed at $399,900. It gets 20 offers. Buyers panic, the price climbs higher and higher… and then it sells for $520,000.
The headline becomes: “House sold for $120,000 over asking!”
But that’s not actually what happened. What really happened is that a desirable home sold for roughly $20,000 over its actual market value.
That’s a very different result. And in many cases, it’s not irrational at all.
The Real Cost of Staying on the Sidelines
Let’s say you pass on that house because paying $120,000 over list price feels uncomfortable.
Now you spend the next six months searching.
You lose out on four more homes.
Interest rates move.
Prices creep higher.
You spend every weekend at showings.
Your life stays in limbo.
Eventually, you buy something else for basically the same price anyway.
Except now you’re exhausted, frustrated, and emotionally burned out — which is exactly when buyers start making bad decisions. Either you do end up overpaying just to get it over with, or you walk away from homes that you should act on.
This is not what we want for our buyers.
Sometimes paying a little extra for the right home is worth it simply because it allows you to move forward with your life.
And there’s another important point: a home desirable enough to generate 15 or 20 offers today will probably be desirable again when it’s your turn to sell in 5 or 10 years.
Strong demand today is usually a good indicator of strong resale value later.
But in order to pull this all off, you and your realtor must understand the difference between strategic aggression and reckless overpaying.
There Is Such a Thing as Overpaying
Now let’s flip the scenario.
A home is worth about $500,000. It’s correctly listed at $499,900. Offers come in, emotions take over, and a buyer used to seeing homes sell for well over list price bids $620,000.
That’s not strategic decision-making. That’s a massive overpay.
This is why having an experienced realtor matters so much right now.
You need someone who understands actual market value and has the patience to guide you through the process properly. Not someone who simply tells you to “bid higher.”
All of our realtors at The Moore Group can objectively answer questions like:
Is this home intentionally underpriced?
What is fair market value?
Is this final price still supported by comparable sales?
Are we competing intelligently, or are we getting emotional?
Because there’s a huge difference between:
Paying slightly above market value for a highly desirable home in a competitive market
and
Wildly overpaying because you didn't understand what the house was actually worth
One is often a smart long-term decision. The other an expensive lesson.
The Bottom Line
Not every bidding war is bad.
In fact, if a home is desirable enough to attract strong competition, that’s often a sign you’re buying something other people will want in the future too. Desirable homes tend to stay desirable.
The key is understanding why the price is climbing. If the home was strategically underpriced from the start, a final number well above asking may still be completely reasonable.
But if the home was already listed at fair market value and the bidding pushes the price into the stratosphere, you need to know when to walk away.
That’s where the confident and experienced REALTORs at The Moore Group come in.
Our job is to help buyers understand the difference between a competitive offer and a bad purchase decision.
Sometimes that means pushing hard.
Sometimes it means walking away.
If you’re trying to navigate bidding wars in the Winnipeg market and want honest advice on when to push and when to walk, give The Moore Group a call at 204-955-7355.