Changing Mix of Comp’s (“Comparable Sold Properties”) It may strike non-professionals as odd, but real estate market values are established by “looking through the rear view mirror” — that is, by scrutinizing recent, similar sales as near to the subject property as possible. Every rule has its exceptions, but the conventions in residential real estate are: ...Read More
Why Didn’t That Home Appraise? Test your knowledge of today’s housing market, and answer the following question: What is the most common reason homes fail to appraise today? A. Buyers who pay an above-market price, perhaps in multiple offers. B. Appraiser inexperience (they use the wrong Comp’s, or get the adjustments wrong). C. Appraiser error...Read More
Sellers Who Are Still Too Far Ahead of the Market With something like 2,000 Twin Cities homes temporarily off the market over the holidays, it’s a good bet that 1,500 or so homes will come back on the market the next few weeks. Or are already back on the market. Of those re-listed homes, how...Read More
The Art of Doing Comp’s Want the science art of Comp’s (for “Comparable Sold Properties”) in a nutshell? It’s placing a given (“subject”) property on a continuum, between the home just below it in price, and the one immediately above. What could be simpler, right? “This and That” Ahhh, but which two homes are those...Read More
(Mis)Reading the Signs Pricing real estate is fundamentally precedent-driven. In other words, if you want to establish an estimated fair market value for “Property H,” you first need to determine what Properties E, F, and G sold for. In Realtor (and Appraiser) lingo, E, F, and G are called Comp’s (“Comparable Sold Properties”), and the compare-and-contrast process...Read More
Dubious Logic According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, “some high-end sellers are taking a counterintuitive and risky step: raising the price.” Does such a strategy ever make sense? Before answering, let me trace the three-step logic implicit in such a move (at least most of the time): One. “Their home is like mine.”...Read More
