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IMHO Appraisals should be done the very first thing, so that you know what to list your house at. And use a person that is a licensed appraiser and has no dog in the fight. This tells you the true worth of your home, not just some inflated value that a real estate agent thinks he can get. This is how we got in this real estate mess in the first place. Real Estate agents know the market but should never appraise a house. Thier interest is to make as much money as they can (not a bad thing), but they are never trueful in actual worth. For actual worth you need to take the cost of materials and the cost of labor to assemble your home. Congrats Guy.
Appraisals cost $400 - $500 and no two are ever the same. You could do an appraisal before selling and have it come in at $375K. Then offers come for $345K and you are insulted and refuse to budge because you have an appraisal at $375K and you never sell because the first was too high.
Or take the reverse and you settle for less than the appraisal done by the bank for the buyer.
My agent said it was a waste on money to do an appraisal first. Rely on your agent to do good comps.
IMHO Appraisals should be done the very first thing, so that you know what to list your house at. And use a person that is a licensed appraiser and has no dog in the fight. This tells you the true worth of your home, not just some inflated value that a real estate agent thinks he can get. This is how we got in this real estate mess in the first place. Real Estate agents know the market but should never appraise a house. Thier interest is to make as much money as they can (not a bad thing), but they are never trueful in actual worth. For actual worth you need to take the cost of materials and the cost of labor to assemble your home. Congrats Guy.
I disagree. Using good comps a realtor can help a homeowner price their home properly. An appraisal is just ONE person's view of the value of your home on ONE day in its life - it's practically useless in no time at all.
The bank making a loan to the buyer is going to require one at the time the buyer makes loan application so you'd end up paying twice for one - that would be a waste of money.
We stayed while the buyer went through the house with his agent. She (the agent) said it was OK and, in fact, the new owner really wanted to meet us. He told us how impressed he was with our care of the house and our willingness to work with him in the sale. His agent said we were some of the "easiest and nicest" people she ever worked with in a sale - either side of the transaction. That made us feel good, of course.
We overheard a little - the inspector will probably recommend some caulking around windows, re-seating one toilet that is a tiny bit "loose," and probably some things we didn't hear. But he was impressed, too, and stopped to tell us that before he left.
The worst part of all these compliments is that I am now wondering if we will find a seller in NC who can meet our "lofty" expectations. Seriously, we will be fine there.
I posted ads on Craig's list for furniture and already had two buyers who are on their way. Must have priced right, I guess.
We stayed while the buyer went through the house with his agent. She (the agent) said it was OK and, in fact, the new owner really wanted to meet us. He told us how impressed he was with our care of the house and our willingness to work with him in the sale. His agent said we were some of the "easiest and nicest" people she ever worked with in a sale - either side of the transaction. That made us feel good, of course.
We overheard a little - the inspector will probably recommend some caulking around windows, re-seating one toilet that is a tiny bit "loose," and probably some things we didn't hear. But he was impressed, too, and stopped to tell us that before he left.
The worst part of all these compliments is that I am now wondering if we will find a seller in NC who can meet our "lofty" expectations. Seriously, we will be fine there.
I posted ads on Craig's list for furniture and already had two buyers who are on their way. Must have priced right, I guess.
Man, are we going to be busy now!
Sounds like you're making all the right moves, now dump what you can. We sold a little on Craig's list and yard sales, then gave away what was worth it and then made several trips to the dump with the rest. We still managed to come in with 11000lbs to ship--amazing what books weigh and ended up giving a complete set of living room tables to one of the moving guys when we saw there really was no room for them in the new house (we downsized a little bit for retirement).
As for the appraisal I know how happy your are to have that behind you. We managed to get ours appraised at full asking price but the house around the corner came in at $40K below and that house was actually in better shape than ours having just been professionally renovated. These days you never know what the appraiser will come back with. If you want a referral to a good agent let me know with a PM and I'll be happy to. Our agent took care of everything for us after the initial purchase contract. He even arranged to have his house cleaner give ours a once over the day before we moved in. Here's hoping your next steps will be as easy as ours was--Larry
When you get to WNC and if you need help getting moved into your new abode PM me and I will come help if I am still in WNC.
THANK YOU! I will remember uour offer. We will first stay with the Parkies (also on this board) until we buy a house - hopefully before the tax incentive runs out.
The Parkies live in a nice area in East Asheville. The reason I know is because of the description they made abour the snowstorm we had. My wife and I almost bought a house in thier neighborhood several years ago. My offer stands if I am still here.
jeff
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Seriously, we will be fine there.
You do sound 'nice and easy' isn't that a Tina Turner song???? LOL....soon you'll be rolling on a river!!!!
