We have an agent who is very experienced but I'm just not sure what I should do here. She has done a comparison analysis on our home and similar homes that have sold recently in the area. She gave me the three addresses and what they sold for and they were right in line with what she said. Her recommended asking price is about 7-14% less than what I thought it should be. We have done some things to the home to make it perhaps a little more valuable than when the last appraisal was done 5 years ago. Her recommendation was 7% less than that appraisal 5 years ago.
Should I spend the money to have a new appraisal? Keep in mind that what she said was just a recommendation. She did say that we could ask for more. But she said we should be willing to go down on price if it doesn't sell. I do want to get the house sold quickly as we have already contracted to buy a new house on the 25th and I really don't want to have to pay 2 mortgages for very long. [Reply]
Originally Posted by xbarretx:
obviously you undervalue your grand mahogany staircase and Tiffany chandler.
we had the exact opposite issue depending on the day. some days it would show roughly what it should be other times it was off 90k (again i know this because my wife is a realtor). its annoying because some buyers do think zillow is very accurate and they get upset when the realtor has to explain why its not.
I'm sure Realtors wish Zillow would just disappear. It's a worthless website that only creates problems for them. [Reply]
Originally Posted by 007:
I'm sure Realtors wish Zillow would just disappear. It's a worthless website that only creates problems for them.
from a purely "data" perspective yes.... but from a generating a conversation stand point.. its nice. Since unless your a realtor you don't get access to MLS.
I enjoyed looking at it because when we sold our house i was able to see what in our neighborhood was up for sale and i could see how we stacked up against the comp. for example some homes had dated kitchens and maybe a bigger backyard but ours was full of mature trees since we backed up to an old farmer hedge row. Thus, we were able to highlight some things that we knew other homes didnt have. its all a process and i HATE moving. Sold our home in Olathe... roughly 2400 sq ft without the basement which if finished would have added another 800 sq ft or so. were building in Dallas (moved for a great job opportunity) and getting almost double the sq ft (around 4300 total) and only paying 30k more than we sold our house for. its all about location and timing .... and gosh dangit i DO NOT want to have to move again. that was my second family relocation..that first was from Gardner, KS to Munich, Germany....sorry i digress. [Reply]
Originally Posted by IowaHawkeyeChief:
If you are selling it on your own, I found they are valuable to have. I got an appraisal on a foreclosure after it was finished that I sold. I listed on Zillow. I shared the appraisal with the interested buyers and told them what a real estate commission 7% would be and that I would give them 3% off the appraisal if they bought direct. I ended up selling it this way. The new appraisal for the loan came back $500 higher. It was a win win for both and I sold the house very quickly this way. You can use zillow comps and have the same strategy, however, an appraisal done within 30 days for $395 turned out to be a good investment as it added immediate credibility to the value.
Zillow is shady as fuck. Their values fluctuate worse than bitcoin. When you list your house on there- all buyer calls get funneled to an agent that is paying them for advertising. Then the agent pushes them to their own listings. [Reply]
If your new buyer is trying to get their loan through Prime Lending- don't accept it. They add all kinds of cost and even tried to make us pay for a second appraisal for the buyer's FHA loan on the property we just sold. On the back end- they added a bunch of ridiculous fees the day before closing. Crooks. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Halfcan:
If your new buyer is trying to get their loan through Prime Lending- don't accept it. They add all kinds of cost and even tried to make us pay for a second appraisal for the buyer's FHA loan on the property we just sold. On the back end- they added a bunch of ridiculous fees the day before closing. Crooks.
VA and FHA are the worst loans to deal with. Avoid them if at all possible. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Lzen:
Well then thing about the realtor is that she is my good friend's step mom. We have known her for many years. But we have never used her services until now. She does co-own the real estate agency from what I understand. She has been doing it for a long time. In the process of getting our new home I have seen a lot of good from her using her experience in this field. So, I do have some trust in her. But I just don't know that her asking price rec. was in the right place.
Don't be afraid to hurt some feelings. We went with a "mom of a friend" realtor when we sold a few years back. We also felt her listing price recommendation seemed low, but we went with it because we just figured she knew better. It turns out that after we did some actual research, her and her co were known for underpricing to get high volume of sales. I figure we missed out on at least $10k, but it was our fault for not do the research up front. [Reply]
Originally Posted by kepp:
Don't be afraid to hurt some feelings. We went with a "mom of a friend" realtor when we sold a few years back. We also felt her listing price recommendation seemed low, but we went with it because we just figured she knew better. It turns out that after we did some actual research, her and her co were known for underpricing to get high volume of sales. I figure we missed out on at least $10k, but it was our fault for not do the research up front.
Hmmm, good to know. We have already told her we want to go higher. She was fine with that. She knows we are willing to come down if it gets little to know interest or if feedback is that its priced too high. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Lzen:
Hmmm, good to know. We have already told her we want to go higher. She was fine with that. She knows we are willing to come down if it gets little to know interest or if feedback is that its priced too high.
Just a warning, doesn't matter what price you set it at. The buyers agent will always say it's too high.
Originally Posted by 007:
Just a warning, doesn't matter what price you set it at. The buyers agent will always say it's too high.
Don't be afraid to stand your ground.
I can't stand the negotiations that inevitably take place... and yeah, it doesn't even matter if you stress that it's priced to sell.
I've had to haggle as little as ~3% of the cost to ease buyer's remorse if they didn't negotiate first... and not just moving money around to make the down payment or loan work or whatever... but actually having to discuss what amounts to like $15/month on a 30 year loan on a house that will probably be sold within 5-10 years.
Yay, I saved $5000! ....uh no, you probably saved $1200 over 7 years while narrowly escaping a fist through your throat*.
I had a mmillionire in the packaging business who was helping to buy a house for his daughter who got blown out of shape with a negotiation within 4 hours of closing clause. He told is daughter not to sign it, she told me to send it to their agent and later signed it, Dad appeared at closing, try his bullshit, "you have to sell so we will take about $5 discount and was promptly presented with a 15% increase in price and the deposit becoming non refundable if negotiations occurred at the closing table.
I gave him $5K discount and his daughter gave me a $22K void of contract settlement in return. He was happy saving his daughter $5K, she was happy getting what she wanted and I grinned for 15 straight at te dickhead without laughing. The Dad forgot telling me this at his his grand daughters BDay party 3 years earlier.
Having a renter who was eager to move into to my next house was my answer to negotiating. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Halfcan:
Zillow is shady as ****. Their values fluctuate worse than bitcoin. When you list your house on there- all buyer calls get funneled to an agent that is paying them for advertising. Then the agent pushes them to their own listings.
This is not true. I have sold 3 properties on Zillow. I had them respond by email, and I had a sign in the front yard with my number and a flyer. Most who use Zillow drive by first and then get a flyer and serious buyers call you direct. I've sold the properties all in less than a month. Others disagree, but I used an appraisal and discounted 2-3% if they had no realtor. The appraisal cost between $350 and $450 and give immediate credibility to the price. Selling a property on your own is not very hard these days if you have an financial background and have an excellent handout that walks a buyer through the process with their lender. Lender's don't mind because they know the customer has more room for LTV. [Reply]
