By Suzana There Is a Better Way to Buy a Home
Are you thinking of buying a home? Do you ever wish you had a real estate appraiser working for you every step of the way guiding you to make sure that you don’t purchase your dream home for more than the market is willing to pay? Well guess what? You’re in luck. After seeing first hand and hearing about buyers that are getting taken by their own mom or the story about the parents who “gave there kids a good deal on the home,” I’ve decided to tell you how to save yourself from losing 1000’s or dollars.
You’d be dumbfounded to find out how many realtors and home owners end up stuffing their own kids and their own family members into homes that simply are not worth the price. They somehow convince their own family members that owning this home and paying this price is a good thing. The buyer wants to help their family member out and after all, “their own mom wouldn’t steer them in the wrong direction, would she?”
Think again my friend. In my nine years of appraising homes, I’ve seen parents sell their home to the kids for a “good deal” only to find out that the kids got suckered. Listing to this story?
The parents decide that they are going to sell their home. They place their home on the market for $265,000. In a market when most homes are selling in less than one month, this home stays on the market for over six months. The price gets changed or updated first after two weeks, then every month until finally, no offers.
So what happened? The parents took the home off of the market and sold the home to the kids for a price higher than the listing price. This is a true story. The spouse (daughter in law) was pissed. She’s been duped and she knew it because I’m the second appraiser that showed up at her door. The first appraisal was not even close to “coming into value” and the time between the purchase and the refinance was less than 1 year. This was a time when home prices were increasing at a rate of 18% in this area. So, there was no way this was in a declining market area.
You see, the solution is simple and it could safe you 1000’s of dollars. Go to your phone book or Google for a real estate appraiser In your area. Ask them how much they will charge you to complete a desktop review. Usually, these are less than $150.00. This appraisal will give you a 90% chance of being correct. In most cases, you’ll have this back in less than three days. If you are way off from your commission paid realtors estimated value or the commission paid loan officers estimated value, then I’d be looking for another opinion, renegotiating or simply back out of the deal, because you’re about to lose your pants and maybe even your shirt.
So, it’s simple. Order your own desktop appraisal. You don’t need a full appraisal, but even a full appraisal would be better than paying 1000’s of dollars too much for your home. Once you get this, look through this appraisal and ask the realtor why they didn’t use any of the sales on the desktop appraisal. If the realtor has used some of the sales, then there is a good chance that you may be in the ball park, so if the numbers look okay, then you should proceed, but not until you make sure that your appraisal and the value of the home is reasonable.
