From: jfox@hooksett.East.Sun.COM (John Fox - SunExpress IR)
Newsgroups: misc.invest.real-estate
Subject: Re: Selling your own home
Date: 28 Sep 1992 15:56:47 GMT
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Distribution: world
Reply-To: jfox@hooksett.East.Sun.COM
NNTP-Posting-Host: hooksett.east.sun.com

In article 4542@tivoli.UUCP, dfavor@logan.tivoli.com (David Favor) writes:
> John:
> >Actually it all sounds like real estate salesperson propaganda to me.
> 
> maybe... Charlie would you respond to this. are you a licensed Agent
> or Broker?

I wasn't implying Charlie was trying to mislead. Moreso that he was
told this by a broker or brokers attempting to discourage FSBO's...
Naturally brokers don't like FSBO's, and I would expect to come up
with a standard response to the seller attempting to sell on his/her own.

> 
> >It's doesn't take a genius to come up with a fair price for a home.
> >All the relevent information is easily available.
> 
> your statement sounds good. I agree that anyone can go to the courthouse
> and secure the deed records to ascertain loan terms (I do this myself if
> I think someone is misleading me. I must admit the shocked look on someones
> face when their deed is produced during negociations is well worth a trip
> to the courthouse. :-) but without the ability of speaking with the listing
> and selling agents how will you determine if a comparable property was sold
> between relatives or the seller was in some way distress? sale between 
> parties of parties under duress must be considered when creating an appraisal.

Are you saying a broker is going to contact the listing and selling agents of
each comp to gather such facts, only to come up with a fair price? I can't
see that happening in more than a few isolated incidents.
That brings up another point. Circumstances which make a sell less
conventional that usual are no longer being tossed out as valid comps.
When I had my land I bought at appraised, I was told auction prices were
now being considered in the appraisal process. I nearly shit. I was told
as more and more sales are made in what was consider unconventional ways,
they become the rule rather than the exception, and therefore have to be
considered... Anyway....


> 
> in fact the information required to determine a comparable price is fairly
> complex. I've spent about 40 hours with an licensed appraiser and I am
> amazed at all the avenues of information he draws on to formulate an
> appraisal. I doubt many FSBOs are aware of how this process works.

They really don't have to. If a FSBO doesn't wish to do all this research,
all they have to do is have an appraisal done. Around here they cost 200-300.
If that gets you a price by all the factors your appraiser uses above,
it's certainly money well spent, and a heck of a lot less that the 5-7 percent
brokers ask for.

> 
> > If the house is
> >truly unique, and comps generally don't apply, a few other opinions
> >(including a pro appraisal) may be in order.
> 
> an appraiser considers every property unique, even a tract home because
> structural issues, market issues (at time of sale) and terms of sale must
> be considered on all properties of like kind. this is one of the advantages
> to using a licensed professional. for most properties a comporable by a
> Real Estate Broker or Agent is sufficient. Professional Appraisers usually
> don't deal with residential property because the returns are to low... or
> at least the Appraisers I've met deal strictly with commercial and high dollar
> residences. it will be a while before I can afford their services. :-)

Banks won't grant loans w/o an appraisal. They use them to determine if the
property is worth what the buyer paid (or at least enough to insure their
required LTV). If I use the same source as the banks to determine a fair
price to sell my house, isn't that about as accurate as you want/have to get?

There are reasons to use brokers, but arriving at a selling price for a
house is not one of them.



John