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The last two times I have consulted with potential listing agents abpout selling my homes, there was some fould play. It seems like they look up what you pay, add afew thousand to tht price and tell you that is all it is worth, hoping that they will get their check sooner. The first one, I actually used another agen and she said 25% more, and I added another 5K, and we sold it in a week for full price. 37.5% higher than the Remax agent with the glossy magazine coverage told me it was worth. Recently on a house, a realtor looked up what I paid, then added the overall increase in value for the area. He was also saying "you did very well." He didn't factor in that it was easily worth double what I paid the bank for it, on the day it closed. What other trick, traps, and tips do you all know about getting a good listing agent that will aggressivley get you top Dollar? Should I just find one that will let me name the price? I know if I don't get nibbles in two weeks, that it is too high, and I don't want to waste anybodies time. But...I sure do smell some conflicts of interest (in a red hot market), and suspect some of these LAs have buyers waiting in the car.
You are doing the right thing which is interviewing agents. Interview at least three agents before hiring someone so you can get a good, ethical, hardworking agent.
When interviewing agents ask them how they are going to develop the market price for your home. Tell them you want to see data sheets/links to homes being used for comparison. Then you can have an intelligent and informed discussion with them about pricing. If they are not willing to talk about methodology and to have that discussion with you then move on to the next interview.
There is no "let" about it. It is your house. You decide on what to list it at. Now I would expect the agent to help you determine this, but as far as I am concerned the final listing price is 100% on the owner.
The seller always has final say on the list price. But I show the comps and recommend a price. If they want to list higher, I let them know it's their choice, they might be missing a good opportunity to sell since most activity happens in the first couple weeks, and that in OUR market right now, if they don't have an offer in 2-3 weeks they will know they are overpriced.
What the sellers paid is almost irrelevant for older homes, esp. if the owner has been in the house > 5 years, at least in my area (No. VA). Updates are expensive and most owners make significant ones around here. The only thing that I could see that might be useful would be to determine whether the owner paid more for the house than what it is currently worth and may not be willing to reduce the price.
What the seller paid, needs or wants out of the sale matters to no one other than the seller.
Last trade ( recent closing prices of comparable homes) determines price of the next trade. In a " red hot market" the last trade sets the floor of the next trade. In a declining market, last trade sets the ceiling.
When a property is priced to sell in a "red hot market", multiple bids are likely.
Most property transfers are financed which means the property has to appraise. An objective party has to determine market value based on factual information. The facts may or may not support the seller's perception.
Regardless, the seller always has the final say on asking price.
If that asking price is way out of line, the agent can take a pass.
Many good points here. It is in the <100K range, so most properties are not financed here. It is clearly an "ascending market" so even comps from June are kind of laughable. Homes lost three fourths of their value--a clear over correction going down, and have since doubled in the last two years, but are still half of what they were.
Many good points here. It is in the <100K range, so most properties are not financed here. It is clearly an "ascending market" so even comps from June are kind of laughable. Homes lost three fourths of their value--a clear over correction going down, and have since doubled in the last two years, but are still half of what they were.
Using a price of 100k as the final selling price, and one agent saying the home was worth .37% less than that selling price, is quite a difference. Using this example, that agent would have quoted the value as $72.5.
This is the first time I've ever heard of an agent arriving at a market value by using the amount the owner paid. There are no real estate valuation classes that I'm aware of that would teach that method, because it does not compare the home with the "current" comparable sales.
What area are you in that the prices have doubled in the past 2 years?
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