How do appraisers account for a bowling alley in the basement? Or some other unusual feature, like a helicopter landing pad, 10,000 gallon aquarium, basement basketball court, or dozens of other unusual — and therefore hard to estimate — home features? They don’t. Huh?? Self-Cancelling Features If it’s possible, the preferred strategy in such situations...Read More
Telling Sellers What They Want to Hear — At First While my track record landing listings is very good — it’s not perfect. The most common reason prospective Sellers choose another Realtor? The other Realtor took the listing at a higher, unrealistic price — a practice that Realtors call “buying the listing.” Exhibit A Last June,...Read More
Weighing Comp’s and “Kind-of-Comp’s” The cornerstone of establishing market value for a given property is the CMA, or “Comparative Market Analysis.” As prepared by both Realtors and Appraisers, it consists of selecting a peer group of three homes (“Comparable Sold Properties”), then going through a compare-and-contrast process sizing up each of the Comp’s relative to the “subject”...Read More
Possible Scenarios and Intriguing Permutations Although there are ways to minimize the risk — and each situation is unique — there are times when a home that’s under contract doesn’t appraise. What then? Assuming that the standard Minnesota Financing Contingency Addendum applies, there are two main possibilities: One. The Buyer’s financing contingency fails, and the...Read More
Copying Goldilocks I’ve written previously about the various mistakes that I’ve seen amateurs make. See, “FSBO Mistake #1 (and #2, #3, etc.)”; “FSBO Mistake #4“; “FSBO Mistake #37.” Does that mean the pro’s — professional Realtors — are perfect? Hardly. It’s just that their mistakes tend to be more subtle (and presumably, fewer). See, “Jumping...Read More
Under Off the Radar In theory, to do a market analysis for a given home, you (“you” being a Realtor or Appraiser) log on to MLS, and do a search for similar, nearby homes that have sold within the last six months. Those are called “Comp’s,” and the magic number is three, good ones. Step...Read More
