In the San Francisco Chronicle • July 19, 2026

What Are Your Preferred Strategies for Effectively Pricing a Listing?

The best renovations either create more usable space or make the space you have work better. In San Francisco, some improvements consistently deliver more value than others—whether you’re preparing to sell or building your forever home.

By Kevin Ho · Team K.Ho, Vanguard Properties · DRE #01875957

What Are Your Preferred Strategies for Effectively Pricing a Listing?

A: List prices are officially a seller decision, but a lot of agent advice is at play. Part science, part art, list price is a signal to buyers from sellers. In San Francisco, the signal is more, please. List price may signal:

  • The seller has no intention of accepting list — more than 65% of sold homes sell well above list.
  • The last two significant digits will likely be -95, -99, or -98. A study of the more than 4,100 San Francisco closed sales since September 2025 shows these three combinations were used more than half the time (35%, 13%, and 7.5% respectively).
  • A -95 catches buyers who’d otherwise never look: if the goal is $2.4M+, list at $1.995M and everyone with a $2M ceiling may now stretch.
  • Bidding-war agents just price at $995,000 no matter what.

Thinking about renovating before you sell?

Before you start spending, let's talk about where the money will actually make a difference. We can help you prioritize the improvements buyers will notice—and the ones you can probably skip.

Talk Through Your Project

In my advice to sellers, I look at comparable sales. Because these are lagging indicators, I ask other active agents for their read. Then I draw on years of intuition and experience, with the goal of being just the right amount of enticing while staying a bit mysterious (just how much under!?) — but only just so, as this art demands. Kevin K. Ho, Vanguard Properties 415-297-7462, kevin@team-kho.com

Kevin K. Ho · Vanguard Properties

415.297.7462 · kevin@team-kho.com