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.
