Wife and I are preparing to sell our house, we've had three different agents come out and provide appraisals. Wondering if someone can provide us with some feedback from the information we received so far.
This subdivision has a section that was built back in the 70s, mostly ranch style with a few large colonials thrown in. My street was added in the late 80s with much larger (about 60 houses) colonials on a single street on one side of the sub.
Of the three agents that came out, there was clearly a difference in their approach, one was well prepared and provided comps and the other two just showed up with nothing. It's the information they provided that has us confused. We've lived in this sub for nearly two decades, we've known the people that sold their homes in the past.
What the agents told us was that because our house is larger than the older section of the sub, they would have to go to another city for comps and the listing price of the house per sq. ft was much less than my neighbor. My first thought was that the agent was looking to just dump the house on the market for a quick sale. I base this opinion on when my neighbor sold his house, the agent told him the same thing, he went with someone else, the house was on the market for three hours and he got what he wanted. The house next door to me, they never even put a sign out and it was sold. The house behind me, part of the older sub, just sold a couple of months ago in one day. so, I don't think there's a need to dump house just to sell them.
I understand that there's a number of variables in selling a home, can someone shed some light on the difference between state assessed valve, tax value and market value (there was a large delta between the assessed and market) and how I can evaluate an agent and if there's any truth to what they've been saying.
Well, for comps, thats kinda BS. They Can absolutely use a smaller home, and use a correction factor. Comps are best as close as possible, in geography, age, size, features, but if you have a pool, it doesnt mean the comps have too, they can add a correction factor to make up for that.
Tax appraised... thats different area to area, but the county tax appraiser has no way to know home condition, finishes, ect. Its strictly age, area, and square footage. They dont know carpet vs tile, or if the cabinets look run down or brand new.
When we sold, we didnt really shop agents, we went with the ones we bought through. I was pretty happy with the agents, they were pretty straight shooters. At first, he kinda beat around the bush, and I told him "I know, this is a upper low class, starter, or rental". He asked, what do You think its worth; i said $180k? He suggested $159k, because thats what he thought it would Bring, and its better to post it at the ending price, and that posting at $180, and then doing a couple $10k drops just isnt efficient, to get to the final price.
Now, our guy, they brought in a photographer, drone pilot, and did a 3d walk through of the home, all for only like $500, and i think that helped. If you dont have that kinda stuff, your several steps behind. He did do some kinda amateur stuff too, like list the address as 145, when it was really 245; and include a single picture from a bathroom at another home.
He did give what I feel was solid, if not always what we wanted to hear advice on the value. He wasnt for remodeling, repairs; clean and sell, and time is money; meaning every month on the market is either additonal payments, or opportunity cost and holding cost to you.
Obviously our Zestimate is skewed low, due to this combination of factors.
