Last week, I met with a seller who told me they needed to get a certain number for their house.
Not wanted. Needed.
And I had to tell them something that wasn't necessarily what they wanted to hear:
It doesn't matter what you need to get.
Now before you get mad at me, hear me out.
A buyer doesn't know your financial goals. They don't know how much you spent updating the kitchen. They don't know what you owe on the mortgage. And quite frankly, they don't care.
A buyer is looking at one thing: what your home is worth today.
They're looking at comparable sales. They're looking at what similar homes sold for. They're looking at what the property is likely to appraise for. That's what drives offers.
And one of the best ways to understand how buyers are thinking is by looking at something called the list-to-sale price ratio.
The list-to-sale price ratio measures how much a home actually sells for compared to its asking price.
If a home is listed for $500,000 and sells for $475,000, the list-to-sale price ratio is 95%.
It's a simple statistic, but it tells you a lot about what's happening in the market.
When homes are consistently selling close to their asking price, it usually means sellers are pricing accurately and buyers are willing to pay those prices.
When homes are selling well below asking price, it often means sellers are starting too high and eventually having to adjust.
For buyers and sellers, this number provides a reality check.
Recently, a buyer asked me a question that most buyers and sellers don't even know exists:
"What is the original list price to sale price ratio?"
I loved that question because it gets to the heart of what's really happening in the market.
The original list price to sale price ratio compares what a home eventually sold for against its very first asking price before any reductions.
That's important because a lot of sellers look at active listings and assume those prices represent market value.
They don't.
Active listings represent what sellers hope to get.
Closed sales represent what buyers were actually willing to pay.
Those are two very different things.
Let's say we analyze comparable homes in a neighborhood and discover that the average original list price to sale price ratio is 92%.
That means homes are selling for about 8% less than their original asking prices.
Now imagine a seller lists their home for $1,000,000.
If neighborhood trends continue, there's a good chance that home may eventually sell closer to $920,000.
The question becomes:
Do you want to start at $1,000,000 and spend months chasing the market?
Or do you want to position the home correctly from the beginning and get it sold?
That's a conversation every seller should have before putting a home on the market.
One of the most common things I hear is:
"Let's just list high and see what happens."
What usually happens is the home sits.
Buyers scroll past it because it doesn't align with comparable sales.
Showings slow down.
Price reductions begin.
The home develops a reputation for being overpriced.
Eventually, the seller reaches the price the market was willing to pay from the beginning.
I've seen situations where a seller listed at one price, spent six months reducing it, and ultimately sold for hundreds of thousands less than the original asking price anyway.
The market always wins.
The only question is how much time you lose figuring that out.
The hardest part of selling a home isn't paperwork.
It's emotion.
You know every improvement you've made.
You remember replacing the roof.
You remember remodeling the bathroom.
You remember the weekends spent landscaping the backyard.
You know how much money and effort went into maintaining the property.
But buyers don't see that history.
They're comparing your home to every other option available to them.
They aren't paying for your memories.
They're paying for today's market value.
That can be a tough reality, but understanding it helps sellers make better decisions.
One of the biggest mistakes people make is relying on national headlines to understand their local market.
Real estate is hyper-local.
What's happening nationally may have very little impact on your neighborhood.
That's why I spend so much time looking at comparable sales, days on market, price reductions, and list-to-sale price ratios within specific communities.
The most accurate picture of your home's value comes from properties that are as similar as possible to yours and have recently sold nearby.
That's where the real story is.
Before listing your home, ask your Realtor:
The answers to those questions can save you months of frustration.
Your home is worth what a buyer is willing to pay for it today.
Not what you need to get.
Not what your neighbor thinks it's worth.
Not what you spent on upgrades five years ago.
The list-to-sale price ratio helps cut through the emotion and focus on market reality.
If you're thinking about selling, ask your Realtor for both the list-to-sale price ratio and the original list price to sale price ratio in your neighborhood. Those numbers can tell you far more than active listings ever will.
Because when it comes to pricing a home, the goal isn't to be the highest-priced listing on the market.
The goal is to be the next one that sells.
ADDRESS 453 W San Antonio St New Braunfels TX 78130
ADDRESS 453 W San Antonio St New Braunfels TX 78130
