subject: Are You A Know-it-all When It Relates Boise Real Estate? [print this page] A seller lists their Boise real estate with a Realtor. The Comparative Market Analysis says the home is only worth $250,000, but the owner insists on listing it at $275,000 with plans to reduce it after two weeks. The listing agent wastes part of his marketing budget as the house sits on the market. Meanwhile, the home down the street sells for $250,000. The six month listing agreement expires and the seller decides the home did not sell due to the listing agent not doing a good job, so he fires him.
The market drops below the real value, leaving dream price in the air. Meanwhile, the home down the street sells for $250,000. By the end of the 6 month listing agreement the seller decides the Realtor did not do a great job of marketing the home and drops the listing.
The seller hires a new agent, and lists the house for $250,000. With recent CMA in hand, the new listing agent puts the home on the MLS for $250,000, still $25,000 above the depreciating market value. Once again the home is overpriced because the market value is declining. The home sits on the MLS for another 6 months, and still no offer, and no sale.
Now aware of what is going on in the market, the homeowner agrees to list the home at $225,000, thinking that will get it done. Again, the market has declined and the home is only worth $200,000.
Do you see a repeated pattern here? You simply cannot blame all of these problems on the listing agents, nor the market as both of those things are predictable. The problem is a bad seller. If the correct market value would have been agreed up on in the first place, the home would have sold. Every month Boise real estate sits on the market is another month that the home is losing value, and as time goes by less and less people even bother to view the property.
With Appraisers and listing agents all using the same source for information for prices, any CMA done correctly will be accurate. If the market analysis can't support a listing price of $275,000, odds are good that the appraiser won't be able to support the price either.
The solution for this is easier than most homeowners think. Any good listing agent would suggest following this easy advice. Once the homeowner has indicated they are not willing to follow your professional opinion relating to the house, accepting the listing would be a big mistake. The most desperate agents are willing to take listings like this, and so rarely benefit from it that you should be forewarned against doing that when you list Boise real estate. For a seller, if you think your Realtor's analysis of your home is inaccurate, it might be a good idea to have a formal appraisal done on the property. Just to be clear, in order to sell a home for more than appraisal value, one has to have the difference between the finance-able amount and the sales price made up by either party, and that is uncommon.
To have your Boise real estate appraised, you have to have a few hundred dollars to pay the appraiser up front. It's a small price to pay in order to be able to sell your home for $250,000 now rather than waiting months or years to find out the home has lost $100,000 in value. At the end of the day it just doesn't make sense for sellers or agents to list properties for more than they are actually worth. Especially when the homeowner may be facing foreclosure, listening to your real estate agent could be the difference between getting your home sold for a profit and getting it sold at all.
