Why Half of San Mateo County Homes Don't Sell Over Asking (And How to Make Sure Yours Does)
San Mateo County hit an all-time high by the end of 2025. But here's the reality check: only half of those homes sold over asking. If you're thinking about selling in 2026, the difference between getting top dollar and leaving money on the table comes down to several things most sellers completely overlook.
As one of the top five buyer's agents in San Mateo County last year, I've seen hundreds of listings. I'm going to show you exactly what separates the homes that get into bidding wars from the ones that sit.
The San Mateo County Market Reality in 2026
We ended 2025 with prices at an all-time high. The median price in the county hit about $2 million, with average prices around $2.5 million. Inventory is constrained—if you were to ask the typical buyer, they'd say it feels like there's nothing for sale.
But here's what most people don't realize: 2023 was the fewest number of sales countywide since the MLS started keeping track of data going back to around 2000. 2024 was the second-fewest number of sales, and 2025 was the third-fewest.
What This Means for Sellers
If you're a buyer and you feel like you're not seeing a lot of product, now you know why. But if you're a seller, this should be very, very good news.
However, what I see often are homes that come on the market too ambitiously priced with marketing that's a little off, and then they just sit there. As a buyer's agent, I love that because after a couple of months or even four or five weeks, you can go in, undercut the original price, and the sellers are so desperate to move on that you can get a really good price as a buyer.
But if you're a seller watching this, that's not what you want.
The critical fact to remember: Only half of the homes that sold last year countywide sold over the asking price. You really have to stand out much more than you ever have before.
Why Agent Selection Matters More Than Ever
Competition exists even in a low-inventory market. Buyers are really judicious with how they spend their money. No one wants to pay a premium for a home that no one else wants.
The San Mateo County Realtor Landscape
Here's what's really interesting: In San Mateo County, there are 2,900 Realtors®. There are also about 6,000 people with an active California real estate license, which is crazy when our population is about 764,000.
You have about two-thirds of Realtors® who do zero transactions per year. Then you have a very small subset of agents who have a business plan, take it very seriously, work with higher volume, and so on.
What to Look For in Your Listing Agent
You really want to do your homework and look at the metrics of the agent you're considering:
Check their online reviews on Yelp and Zillow
Verify their track record and transaction history
See how many homes they've sold in your specific city or area
Review what type of homes they sell
Examine their average and median price per square foot
I get asked by past clients and friends on a monthly basis or more about how to choose the right agent when they're selling their homes outside of San Mateo County. I go through the process with them on how to identify the right person and what questions to ask. It's very fascinating what I see.
The two most important things to look for as a seller would be marketing skills and competence, plus negotiation skills. There's a lot to discuss around both marketing and negotiation.
Property Preparation: The Game-Changer Most Sellers Skip
How well you prepare the property for sale can make or break your outcome. You could just put something on the market as-is—move out, have a professional cleaner come in, do the windows, do some inspections, maybe stage it for $5-10 thousand, and you're done. Which is fine.
However, as a listing agent, I have a fiduciary obligation to you, the seller, to help you have a smooth experience, go through the process with integrity and honesty, and help you get the highest possible price.
The Philosophy Behind Property Prep
My mentor used to say to me, "Raziel, real estate is simple, but it's not easy." A big part of that has to do with the property prep that many sellers should consider doing.
When you're preparing your home, it's not just about staging and having some nice curb appeal, though that's the bare minimum. The whole goal from my perspective as a marketer and from your perspective as a seller is to eliminate objections about the condition of the house.
If you can eliminate any concerns that people might have about the roof, plumbing, foundation, electrical, HVAC, or the condition of any system in the house, you open up your buyer pool. The more you can open up your buyer pool, the more buyers who are going to be interested in your house. More interest means more disclosure packages going out, which can tend to lead to more offers.
A Real Example: The Foundation Crack
I just saw a disclosure package yesterday for a nice home in San Mateo, around $2 million. My buyers went to the open house over the weekend and asked for the disclosures. When I reviewed them, there was a vertical crack in the foundation about half an inch wide. There was no estimate to repair it. There was no professional engineering commentary around it.
My buyers are already getting a weird feeling about it. That's not what you want as a seller.
The right approach: Get an engineering inspection from a structural engineer. Find out what it would cost to fix it. If you're the seller, try to fix that if you can, or at a minimum, disclose it with professional documentation.
The market rewards homes that are well-prepared visually and under the hood.
Low-Hanging Fruit: The Must-Have Upgrades
Professional Photography Is Non-Negotiable
You would think this is common sense, but I see properties frequently in San Mateo County where it looks like the agent took the photos on their iPhone. If you're going to showcase a several-million-dollar home, there's a right way to do that.
You want to either bring in lighting, make sure you're shooting at the right time of day, and use as much natural lighting as possible. If it's an older home without great ceiling lighting, make sure your stager has brought in appropriate floor lighting so the room feels as bright as possible.
Professional Staging Changes Everything
Unless your home has been designed by an interior designer and looks like a showcase, professional staging is almost a no-brainer. You can sell your home with your furniture in it. But a professional stager will bring a fresh approach to what buyers want to see today.
Simple Updates That Make a Big Impact
Window treatments: We remove old window treatments on about two-thirds of our listings. If there's nothing there, that's way better than some window curtains or blinds where the colors might be a little strong, or they're just a little bit older.
Window screens: We'll take them off and put them in the garage.
Curb appeal: This starts before people even reach your door. I had a listing last year that sold for close to $4 million in Burlingame, and my sellers even paid to have their neighbor's lawn refreshed prior to going on the market.
HVAC systems: I had a listing last year where the HVAC system was on its way out. We could have just disclosed it, but I had a feeling that many buyers at that price point might not have another $30 or $40 thousand dollars after they bought the home to invest in that. My seller replaced the system, and we ended up having seven offers. It sold for almost a million dollars over asking.
Flooring: We highly suggest refinishing hardwood floors or installing new flooring. We've had several clients spend $40-50,000 redoing or adding brand new engineered wide plank European oak floors.
Professional painting: Quite often, we do professional painting inside and outside, at least on the walls. Sometimes we do trim, sometimes we don't.
Light fixtures: A lot of homes have really average lighting. We'll often recommend replacing older light fixtures with updated ones that cost $60-100 from Amazon, Lamps Plus, or Home Depot.
What NOT to Spend Money On
Single pane windows: Don't spend a lot to replace these and turn them into dual pane. I don't think you're going to get your money out from a sale perspective.
Over-improving: Be cognizant of what other homes typically sell for in your neighborhood. You don't want to overimprove your home more than what the neighborhood can support. You don't want to be the most expensive home in the neighborhood unless it's thoughtfully done.
Unnecessary closet buildouts: If there's a bare closet that someone's not going to see, you probably don't need to spend $1,000-2,000 building it out.
The Pre-Sale Inspection Advantage
In most of the country, it's standard practice for the seller to say what they know about the house, the buyer writes an offer, they negotiate, then the buyer comes in with their inspectors and learns about issues. Then they go back and renegotiate.
In San Mateo County, we do things differently. We typically do a home and pest inspection before we go on the market. Some sellers do an engineering inspection if necessary. This gives us, as the seller and listing agen,t much more visibility into the condition of the home.
It's really nice if you can provide to buyers in your disclosure package: "We did this, this, and this. We probably didn't need to do it, but we've taken care of this."
Why This Matters Now More Than Ever
So many buyers have so much going on in their lives professionally, personally, and with commuting. A lot of people just don't have the bandwidth to focus on finding contractors and managing repairs.
As a seller, if you can make your property more turnkey, you're going to stand out from others. The fewer things that the buyer has to do, the more that's going to open up your buyer pool, and the more they're going to feel comfortable making an offer.
Real Results: The ROI Story
I had one listing last year that was on the market with a previous agent. The photography wasn't quite there; it had some of the seller's personal items in the home, and it wasn't staged. After they engaged me and the property hadn't sold the first time, I encouraged some very minimal investment in the property.
My client spent about $16,000, which included the staging. We ended up selling the home for $800,000 over asking with eight offers. For every dollar my seller put into the house, they had an ROI of $50.
When you couple a really thoughtful home prep strategy with a savvy negotiation strategy, it works. Last year, my average price per square foot was about 11% higher than that of the other top 10 agents in the area.
Pricing Strategy: The Two Approaches
There are two ways you can choose to price your home as a seller:
Price ambitiously on the higher side
Price on the lower side to attract multiple offers
One approach isn't necessarily right or wrong. Different sellers have different goals and viewpoints around where the dollars are going to land.
The Power of Competition
If you can have an attractive list price, that can create a lot more urgency and competition. I've had dozens of times in my career where having multiple offers ended up driving prices higher than even the aspirational pricing my seller had, just because we were able to create a lot more competition.
Trust and Transparency Matter
If you're transparent and you have a good reputation, your colleagues will trust you. How your listing agent communicates with buyer's agents in their word choice in the negotiation, and the trust they've built, is really important.
I had a listing a few months ago where the numbers that came in were so high they were well beyond where my seller was expecting. I could have easily said this is a record number, and we should accept it. But I felt like we could do better.
We did a second round of bidding with a multiple counter offer. We gave a level playing field for all the buyers. No one was at an advantage—everyone had an opportunity to come up. We engendered a lot of trust with the buyer's agents. Every buyer had an opportunity, and several agents who had written offers on other properties said, "We just want an opportunity. We just want to know where we need to be to secure the house."
The Secret Weapon: Your Disclosure Package
Having a really complete and solid disclosure package is table stakes and the lowest hanging fruit out there to really stand out.
What Makes a Bad Disclosure Package
A crack in the foundation with no explanation
Mentioning a plumbing problem without giving much detail
Saying you remodeled bathrooms four years ago but not providing permit history
Missing information about square footage
Missing tree disclosures
Telling buyers at the open house you got permits but not including documentation
I just reviewed a disclosure package a couple days ago for a flipped home at $3.5 million. There was missing information about the square footage, the tree disclosure was missing, and the listing agent had told my buyer at the open house they had permits for all the work, but none of this was in the disclosure package.
When I asked for the information, the agent said, "Oh, appreciate how thorough you are. We'll add that to the disclosure package in a day or two." I was the only one who had asked these questions that I thought were pretty basic.
What Makes a Strong Disclosure Package
A really strong disclosure package should include a chronological history. If you owned the home for 12 years, list out what you did each year:
Work you got a permit for with finalized permit numbers
Other work you did without permits (just be honest)
Remodeling projects with approximate costs
Landscaping changes
All receipts
California law states: Anything that a buyer could perceive as material should be disclosed to a buyer.
The level of disclosure is very high. For example, if the seller plays piano on Friday nights at 9 PM and it's loud enough for neighbors to hear, that should be disclosed. Some buyers might want to know that.
Required Documents in Your Disclosure Package
Seller Property Questionnaire (SPQ)
Transfer Disclosure Statement (TDS)
Additional addendum to those documents (sometimes three, four, or five pages)
All inspections: pest, roof, foundation, engineering
Permit history
HOA documents, if applicable
We get compliments frequently from buyers' agents about how clean our disclosure packages are.
Why This Matters for Your Bottom Line
You want buyers to make decisions on your home based on how badly they want it, not based on how they'll address all these unknowns or things they need to deal with later because they don't have the bandwidth.
This reduces stress for buyers, gives them more confidence, and means you, as the seller, are going to get stronger offers with more attractive terms.
Marketing Essentials Beyond the Basics
The Must-Haves
Awesome photos
Twilight photos
Drone photos
Matterport 3D tours
Why Matterport 3D Tours Are Non-Negotiable
Matterport 3D tours have been out for a few years, and if I could wave my magic wand, every agent would do one. They're only a few hundred dollars.
This allows buyers to immerse themselves in the home before seeing it. Videos are cool, but when you're watching a video, you're seeing it through the way the person who edited it wants you to see the house. With a Matterport tour, you can press up, back, side to side, and move through the house at the pace you want.
I have buyers who look at the Matterport and decide they don't want to go see the house, which saves everyone time. But imagine you're the buyer and you see the Matterport tour right away and think, "Oh my god, I want to go see the house even sooner."
I've had several listings where buyers bought the home sight unseen because of the Matterport tour—not because of the agent's iPhone video, not because of the photos, but because the Matterport tour was so good.
Your 2026 Selling Strategy
Selling in 2026 isn't about hoping for the best in a strong market. You couldn't ask for better market conditions aside from lower interest rates, but that is what it is.
It's all about executing a strategy that helps buyers feel confident, competitive, and clear about what they're getting. The homes that sold over asking last year did these things—or at least most of them did. The ones that didn't usually skipped some steps they probably could have done.
The difference between a home that gets multiple offers and one that sits on the market often comes down to preparation, presentation, and having someone in your corner who understands what buyers are actually looking for, not just what sellers hope they'll accept.
It's kind of hard to know what you don't know until you're already in the middle of it. That's why reaching out early makes sense. Even if you're six months out or a year out from selling your home and going on the market, let's talk about your specific timeline and what makes sense for your specific situation.
Contact me to discuss your specific property and build a plan that positions you to get top dollar for your home.
This article is copyrighted by Raziel Ungar and may not be reproduced or copied without express written permission.
