Real estate General topic

[kenmbz]

My first house I wanted listed at $30,000 more than the RE agent, and I got that in sale.
Second house I wanted it list at $80,000 more then the RE agent, I got $60,000 of it.

It's not a science to figure it out, look around for what current houses sell for, then look at land/sq feet and upgrades.

Try not to go too crazy though, and good luck with the sale Mi-Troll.
Don't be afraid to ask more RE people and see if there is a good average high price.
Can always wiggle if you're in the ballpark, but if too high, things might go quiet.

Depends on your time frame too, if you can wait longer, you can go a little higher than if you want a quick sale.
We did a lot of home work before we set our price,

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[WinterDeere]

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.

This is actually normal. The largest houses in the neighborhood have their price dragged down by the average, thus netting less per square foot than the smallest houses in the neighborhood. Conversely, the smaller houses have their price pulled up by the average.

Generally, all agents are going to get roughly the same % of the sale price, and the difference is speed of sale, both for them making money, and for your decision of who to use.

I can't speak for sales price, as that comes down more to the constitution of buyer and seller, but realtors definitely start from very different asking prices. Some price above market, with the goal of maximizing profit from a few sales, while other bottom-feeders price way below market and make their income on volume. I personally saw a range of more than 2x in the suggested listing prices from realtors, on the last house I sold. We chose the realtor who was willing to accept our suggested listing price, as we'd already done our own comp's. The house had 3 viewings and 3 offers in the opening weekend, we chose the highest price without a selling contingency attached.

 

[ultrarunner]

When i sold my rental house in town about 6 years ago, i told the realtor what to list it at. He said i was too high, but i insisted on leaving it at that price. It sold in 2 weeks at my price. He wanted me to list it at nearly 40k less…. As thats whats comps showed.

Heck with comps. I had just repainted, new flooring, new water heater and cooktop. New curtains. Im not taking a 40k hit. I would rather keep it and rerent it.

Comps are historical but not necessary current because the comps are of sold property no longer on the market…

More accurate is what are the current listings of similar as opposed to what has already been sold in my opinion.

 

[ultrarunner]

My first house I wanted listed at $30,000 more than the RE agent, and I got that in sale.
Second house I wanted it list at $80,000 more then the RE agent, I got $60,000 of it.

It's not a science to figure it out, look around for what current houses sell for, then look at land/sq feet and upgrades.

Try not to go too crazy though, and good luck with the sale Mi-Troll.
Don't be afraid to ask more RE people and see if there is a good average high price.
Can always wiggle if you're in the ballpark, but if too high, things might go quiet.

Depends on your time frame too, if you can wait longer, you can go a little higher than if you want a quick sale.
We did a lot of home work before we set our price,

​

Sometimes in strong sellers market the strategy is to list at a lower price point and review offers…

In the crazy sellers market a few years back the realtor listed just under a million for a property that was closer to 1.1m based on last 90 days…

17 offers… all at list or higher resulted in a 1.24m sale…

 

[WinterDeere]

Comps are historical but not necessary current because the comps are of sold property no longer on the market…

More accurate is what are the current listings of similar as opposed to what has already been sold in my opinion.

??? That's a pretty crazy view of things. People ask all sorts of crazy prices, both high and low, depending on motive. Asing price means nothing, only the actual settlement prices matter.

Comp's are usually done from recently-sold properties, not something that sold years ago. There are indeed rare periods where price is changing quickly, but even then it's not impossible to extrapolate recent sales using trends gauged from the most frequently-occurring property types.

 

[thclimer]

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.

Have you ever tried looking at your house at Zillow.com

I'm not promoting their assessment tool but it might just give another perspective as I believe it is really only based upon the type of house you have, # of SqFt, age, # of bed/bathrooms,.... Its comparing all this data to other houses in your nearby area that have sold recently.

Now if your house is a post and beam style and there are no other post/beam style houses, Zillow isn't going to work for you. If however you live in a development and generally the houses are similar in age and construction, what's really going to matter is the square footage, number of bedrooms, number of bathrooms, garage size. The next thing that's going to come into play is your interior finishes, did you just spend $80 to renovate your kitchen, your primary bathroom, did you just finish your basement... A realtor is going to be able to customize your house price for those things.

 

[paulsharvey]

We had issues getting comps, because as our mortage company pointed out, crossing a county line totally changes things. Different taxes, schools, stigmas, ect. Our northern property line Is the county line. They really had to go like 30 mile radius, and like 6 month sales history to gather what we're at best, so-so comps. As in, one home was like 18 years old, some where 5 acres, some 12 acres, one had a perm carport, non had pools, ect. The closer, time, distance, and residence the more reliable the comp is.

With that, any mortage is going to want to see they arent loaning above value, so comps are needed regardless.

Edit: 30 mile radius isnt really accurate; upto 30 miles east, south, and south east, as im in the far north west corner; if it wasnt for that, they likely could have gotten more, and easier comps

 

[WinterDeere]

Have you ever tried looking at your house at Zillow.com

Zillow has probably the best pricing models and algorithms out there, with one flaw: bad data. So many houses have incorrectly-reported square footage or ammenities, due to lack of consistently used or enforced permitting. My own house is listed at nearly half its size, our in-ground pool is listed as above ground, our 2-story heated carriage barn is listed as a 1-story shed, and the age of the house is off by about 150 years. Obviously our Zestimate is skewed low, due to this combination of factors.

 

[riptides]

Zillow has probably the best pricing models and algorithms out there, with one flaw: bad data. So many houses have incorrectly-reported square footage or ammenities, due to lack of consistently used or enforced permitting. My own house is listed at nearly half its size, our in-ground pool is listed as above ground, our 2-story heated carriage barn is listed as a 1-story shed, and the age of the house is off by about 150 years. Obviously our Zestimate is skewed low, due to this combination of factors.

You can correct Zillow data. And you can also check with your local tax office to see what data they have.

My address does not list all tax parcels owned. So the lot size is incorrect.

 

[WinterDeere]

You can correct Zillow data. And you can also check with your local tax office to see what data they have.

My address does not list all tax parcels owned. So the lot size is incorrect.

It’s been awhile, but I remember trying that about 15 years ago. It reverted to the original values.