Currently in certain price ranges our averages are more like 99%. Our homes 150K and under are in high demand. If we look at homes between 300-500K, however, our list to sales price ratio is going to fall below 97%. Real estate is regional with huge differences in markets. Even looking at cities that are close to us (Houston, Austin, Dallas) it's impossible to second guess another market. Our market is, for the most part, driven by our largest employer, Texas A&M. The health of the college is the health of the city. Each year graduate students and parents come here to buy homes and condos for the next 3-5 years, and each year others are selling.

Currently the Texas A&M Real Estate Center is predicting a larger than average increase in sales prices for the Brazos Valley.

Never listen to a "one size fits all" approach to real estate please.

The Market in Bryan-College Station is a little bit more sheltered than the rest of the world. Last year, I sold 122 homes, and this year I have sold over 14. The 80% ratio does not apply here. People still get what they are asking for if the home is priced correctlly.
Happy House Hunting!
Raylene Lewis, Realtor
The Best Realtor in the Brazos Valley http://www.buyincollegestation.com http://www.buyinbryantexas.com
979-218-2235
"Raylene Lewis, A House-Sold name"

These days 80% max.

I hope you did not offer 97% like these people suggested a year ago.

Most sellers tend to negotiate between 3 and 5 thousand dollars AND if a property is overpriced by at least 10,000 most Buyers will choose to make an offer on another property, instead of making an offer on the overpriced listing. I have found that if your home is priced correctly, you will have an offer after about the 6th to 8th showing at most. The list price to sales price ratio overall in Bryan College Station is typically 98%. A home truly priced correctly in College Station under 155,000 will go for list and won't even last a week on the market!
Happy House Hunting!
Raylene Lewis, Realtor
The Best Realtor in the Brazos Valley http://www.buyincollegestation.com http://www.buyinbryantexas.com
979-218-2235
"Raylene Lewis, A House-Sold name"

The list to sales price pretty much hovers around 97% in College Station. Lower priced properties sell for typically a greater ratio (probably closer to 99%) and properties higher than 300K often sell for 95-96% of list price. Don truly answered the question with a great answer. When making an offer you first have to determine whether the list price is reasonable before you decide on an offer. Some properties that are an excellent bargain go for exactly list price and others go for far less than list price but still aren't a bargain!

Regarding list to sales price ratio in general: Be careful when anyone quotes a specific number. As Jim says, every transaction is unique. Also, understand what such a ratio does and doesn't tell you.

For instance, let's take a property listed for $100,000. It sells for $97,000. It would appear that it sold for 97% of the list price. However, let's say it had been listed originally at $110,000, then a month ago the seller dropped the list price from $110,000 to $100,000. In this case, it sold for 88% of the list price ($97,000 divided by $110,000).

Now let's say that there were 3% seller concessions in the transaction. So, while the house "sold" for $97,000, the seller was actually crediting back $2,910 to the buyer. So the real net (before any other expenses, fees, commissions, etc.) to the seller was $94,090. And if the house had originally been listed at $110,000, then it actually sold for 85.5% of the original listing price.

So, what is the list-to-sales price ratio? 97%? 88%? 85.5%?

The moral of the story is: Don't use list-to-sales price ratios to make offers. If you took a look at our hypothetical house when it first came on the market at $110,000, figured an acceptable purchase price was 97% of list, and ended up buying the house for $106,700 (rather than $94,090), you could have overpaid by $12,610.

Good luck.

Every transaction is unique, and the stats you want are not likely to be helpful. Likely, College Station is not a unique market, and the ratio may range from 1:0.85 up to 1:1.03, like it does in San Antonio.

Even with the stats you want, factors like the property condition, upgrades, improvements, seller motivation, buyer motivation, whether the property was priced right and seller contribution would not be readily available--and make a big difference to the bottom line.

If you make a buyer's representation arrangement with a good agent, the agent would likely not be able to get the data on seller contribution or most of the other factors, though many of them can be inferred, . The agent can however do a market analysis on the property you find and recommend strategies that will lower your costs.

Average----should be close to 97%.

You will never have a definite answer too that question it is all relative good agents list the home based on the market value .