Apr. 27, 2007 - The Value Of Appraisals

I am often asked about whether it is wise to get an appraisal before putting ones house on the market.  My answer would be yes, under certain circumstances and if you have money to burn.

Do you know what the definition of an appraisal is?  An appraisal is the procees of ESTIMATING a property's market value based on established methods and the appraiser's professional judgement.  Do you know what an appraisal is used for?  The appraisal substantiates the sales price of the property and assists the lender in determining maximun loan amount.

When I come over to talk about listing your house, I, as a real estate broker, am going to do a CMA.  That is an acronym for a Comparative Market Analysis.  That means that I am going to take a hard, analytical look at the houses that have recently been on the market in your neighborhood that are pretty close to being the same as yours.  I am going to look at the listed prices of what sold, market time, list price to sales price ratio and the listed prices of houses that did not sell.  After I look at all of that I am going to come up with an ESTIMATE of your property's value based on my professional expirience and judgement.  As long as there are some properties to compare yours to, I will be  doing a pretty dead on target job of coming up with a listing price that should help us sell your house for it's market value.  (Notice that I said "for it's market value", not it's full list price.)

If you have money to burn then you can go ahead and spend the $300-$400 it would cost for Appraiser's opinion.  If you have a totaly unique property then I would most likely insist on getting an appraisal before we listed it.  Otherwise, if you can find something better to do with that $300-$400 I would suggest doing it.  Most often, under normal circumstances, the only thing less valuable than a seller paying for an appraisal up front is a Zillow "Zestimate". 

As always, if you have found yourself receiving my blog postings via e-mail, it is because I have either blogged about you personally, blogged about something I know is of interest to you, or I consider you to be a person of deep thinking and intellect and I would love to have you occasionally commenting on my blog. If you would like to be removed from the list simply send me an e-mail saying so.

May. 17, 2007 - re: Starting off on my own

Hi Gene,

Read your blog for the first time today and it's great to know there are agents out their with a conscience out there like myself.

I actually need your advice ,I am seriously thinking to go it alone, I am a Broker with Coldwell B but I have started to realise I am working my ******** off in this business and end up giving a big chunk each closing to the Company.I ahve only been in the business 21/2 yrs and learnt everything on my own with no mentor( are you kidding I was not going to split anymore $$$$$] but I am hoping to start small, one man band from home office.I have everything I need and work mostly from home too plus my husband is an apparaiser so we have the whole set up at home.

What steps tdo I need to take ?Do you know or can you send me in the right direction I am sort of overwhelmed with info right now and need to see some light!

Thanks alot

Sameena

May. 17, 2007 - re: The Value Of Appraisals

I am glad you like my blog Sameena.  I am astonished that you would be asking my advice, but since you did...............

I am actually a Broker Associate with Charles Rutenberg Realty of Illinois, so I am not really "going it alone", I am just with a company that does not put it's hands deeply into my pockets.  They allow me to run my business as I see fit.  I only pay $35 a month to hang my license and $325 per transaction, $50 of that being for E & 0.

What state are you in?

Maybe it would be better if you e-mailed me.  Just hit the Email Me link on the right hand side of the blog and I'll get back to you in more detail.