January 25, 2007 – 7:53 am
Know what other homes have sold for and get an appraisal on your home.
The single biggest reason for sale by owner homes fail is
because the owner has set an asking price far above what other
houses in the neighborhood have sold for.
If you have your for sale by owner house overpriced, don’t rush out and hire a real estate agent to represent you thinking that he or she will sell your house for what you are asking. The first thing your real estate agent will do is order an appraisal and check comparable properties to see what other homes in your neighborhood have sold for recently. You should do the same.
You want to set a realistic price on your house. Otherwise, you may not even get any calls to show it. If your listing shows your house priced well above other homes in your area, potential buyers will not even call. That’s why it is important that you set the right price before you list your home.
There are two primary and very effective methods for arriving at the right price:
- Comparative Market Analysis
- Appraisal
Good thing for you that you can order both of these online.
See Also
- Tips On Pricing Your Home
Learn more about pricing your house right with a comparative market analysis or electronic appraisal.
August 15, 2006 – 4:53 pm
Should it be a deal breaker?
Okay, you find a real estate agent and they help you locate the property you want to buy. A condo, a house, whatever.
You plan to finance 80-90% and put the rest down in cash.
Your real estate agent tells you other homes or condos in the same area have sold for the price you are paying so the appraisal will reflect that.
Okay, you see the realtor has it under control and you don’t make the financing and offer contingent on the appraisal being at or above the price you are paying for the property.
Your lender is only going to loan you the 80-90% based on the appraised value of the home. If that turns out to be less than the price you agreed to pay then you have to come up with more money for a down payment and you are now paying more than the home is worth.
You should always include a financing contingency in the contract that states it depends on the appraisal.
If this happens to you, there is very little you can do unless the real estate agent deliberately falsified the value of the home or condo or the Appraiser did not do a thorough job of evaluating it.
You should examine the Appraiser’s complete report even if they appraised it at the value you agreed to pay for the property. Make sure they actually did a physical walk-through and that all of the assets of the property were included in the appraisal.
You have the right to ask them to reappraise the property if you find descrepencies in the complete report.
See Also
February 9, 2006 – 12:19 pm
Another housing valuation site?
With all the hoopla surrounding the launch of Zillow.com, Richard Bartons the founder of Expedia.com’s newest venture, I was expecting something that might revolutionize the real estate industry in the way Expedia helped to transform the travel industry. Instead we get a website providing online home valuations??!! The website launch’s anticipation build-up by the media created a traffic frenzy that apparently took Zillow offline for most of the day yesterday.
I’m sorry, but online Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) just isn’t very exciting. The website looks nice and there’s an easy to use interface, but there are plenty of players already in the market offering similar services, albeit, not for free. For instance, HouseValues.com services come with the baggage that your contact information is fed to hungry real estate agents in your area. They make money off of referrrals, so I guess Zillow represents a step up for consumers in that regard. ElectronicAppraiser.com offers housing sale statistics for consumers for a modest price.
From interviews with Barton, it seems that the goal is web traffic and then turning that traffic into revenue in some form or fashion. The idea of capturing enough online viewers to make SOMETHING happen worked fairly well for Expedia. So what’s the end game here. It’s not apparent how the revenue will be generated except perhaps from advertising.
One is left to believe that there has to be another or two offering still to come from this website. Perhaps the free house valuation is a lead-in to other ventures. Otherwise, I’m not sure what all the excitement was about.
See Also
- Zillow
Founder of Expedia launches home valuation website
