Buyers ask, in your state do you answer? (concessions, agents, Realtor)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
How long has it been on the market?
What did it sell for?
What did the buyer buy for?
are off limits for us to answer.
Only because I've been indoctrinated to NM real estate law, but I do realize it's common in most states to have these answers at your fingertips, I wonder how you feel about these questions.
I personally feel like it's no one's business. We are a non disclosure state.
The property is worth what the buyer and seller were willing to settle on for their terms. It wasn't even until recently we had to disclose selling prices to the tax assessor. For vacant land we still don't. The tax assessor cannot disclose selling prices either.
I was wondering how you as agents feel about this kind of practice.
I would think it hard to keep up with selling prices and exacts and the liability for seller and buyer end you must face with having this information at your disposal to have to work with.
In AZ, most of the answers to those questions are a matter of public record and are available on most county websites (at least the last sale price). The county records are usually a little slow getting posted on the website, but generally the sales price info is available within a month or two after the sale. If somebody wanted the info faster, they could go to the courthouse and ask. Also attainable is the amount originally borrowed on the home.
Days on market is posted on the MLS (but not the public version). Many buyers will ask how long a house has been for sale.
I personally prefer to work with a buyer who likes to be informed. In fact I think an informed buyer is much more apt to make a reasonable offer based on his knowledge and get a better deal on a place than a buyer that simply wants x% off the list price. They'll lowball on a reasonably priced house, and normally the seller of a reasonably priced house isn't going to negotiate that much. So what happens? They lose out on a great deal and then turn around and make the same x% off the list price on a terribly overpriced house. When the offer is accepted they're thrilled because they think they got a great deal (when, in fact, they're probably paying market value or even a little more).
To me there's much more liability on the agent in a non-disclosure state, because a buyer could make the case that an agent was trying to keep home prices atificially inflated by listing homes much higher than market value and not disclosing to the buyer that prices were falling (like the lawsuit we've been hearing about recently).
In Massachusetts these questions can all be answered by either going to the appropriate counties website and looking up public records and a realtor/agent can tell you days on market. Even though it is public information what you paid for your home and how much you mortgaged IMO is personal information and no one's business
Amazing Keeperk. I cannot believe they have tied your hands like that. How unfair to the buyers. And sellers are usually buyers, too!! I also think it would be hard to show sellers what they should selling at? or am I missing something?
yes, we can tell you what it setttled for and it is a part of our MLS information. However, concessions are not (I wish they were). So, the house could have a sales price of 299,900 and seller concessions of 10k.. but all I will see is the sales number. I think that is hard for both the seller and the buyer.
Yikes! Scary to be a buyer in a non-disclosure state!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.