Dumb Little Man is a website full of “tips for life”. They have an article titled “Selling Your Home: 10 Questions I Asked When Choosing an Agent“. Here is one of them, read their article to read the rest:
Q. Why are you saying my home is worth $400K when I think its worth $325K?
A. We do an analysis so we know what similar homes are selling for in your area (which is BS for we run a little query on home sales within .5 miles from your home).
TIP: Ask to see the comparisons (called “comps”). High volume agents may be motivated to list your house too high because they don’t need the quick commission. An new agent may list a home too low just to sell it quickly and get paid. Bottom line is that it’s your house and you need to do homework to ensure you’re asking the right price. Do not simply take their word for it.
(Read the rest, they’re all pretty interesting.)
Of all of the questions, the one I mentioned here is of import to us at eppraisal.com. How each of the parties, agent and seller, find out the value of the home is completely different. Many home sellers will look up services like ours and get a ballpark figure to work from. More studious ones will actually go out and get a licensed real estate appraiser to do the work. Either way, self-education on your own home’s worth is a good thing to do.
As far as agents are concerned, we hope that they’re doing more than an eppraisal too. Just like the writer of these 10 tips, we want to believe that our agent is heavily invested in our property and doing the right thing for us.
Related Articles
3 users responded in this post
Business is so competitive for RE Agents that many succumb to “Buying” a listing by over valuing it to the seller(s).
As with most things, it is important for the consumer (patient) to not leave it up to the experts, but become pro-active and put some effort into the endeavor to ensure the best prospects, services and opportunity.
There is no substitution for consumer involvement. That includes listening to the honest and realistic agent when they say the property may not be worth as much as the seller thinks or wants.
On another note, the Seller/Consumer needs to do their homework, so they can recognize when an agent wants to lower the price simply to make it “easy” to sell.
[...] Update: Just noticed I was a little behind on this story as it was already covered by both Jonathan and Erik. [...]