House listing question

shaydenise · February 2012

I should know the answer to this since I worked in real estate but I don't because this never came up when I did...

How does one determine a list price if there are zero comps that have sold or been listed in the past 6-12 months? There is literally nothing for us to compare to when it comes to listing our house. We will be using a realtor but I don't want to contact them until we're ready, and if our list price isn't going to be where we want it to be then we won't be listing at all... I guess I just don't want to give the realtor the run around if we don't end up listing. I know we can have an FMA done but again, I don't want to waste their time.

K&J64 · February 2012

I don't know that there is a way beyond an appraisal. The only other suggestion I have is to "interview" several realtors and have them all tell you where they'd list the house and pick a list price that's in the middle of the range you get from them. I'd have at least 3 or 4 realtors come and see the house. I know if all their prices are too low you may not list, but it will only take about a half hour of each of their time, which is worth it for them to try to get a new client, so I wouldn't feel bad.

shaydenise · February 2012

That's what I figured, kcullen. We might contact a few different companies and see what they have to say. If we do decide to list, it will probably be closer to May so we have time, I'm just impatient and want to know NOW. ha ha

K&J64 · February 2012

I understand, home buying and selling is a very exciting and nerve wracking process. It's good that you're going to wait until the Spring for the buyer traffic to pick up. My parents have their house on the market right now and it's hardly getting any showings, it's just not the best time of year. Plus it will give you time to do any little things around the house you need to do, paint, fix any little blemishes, put some new plantings out front etc.

Also, and you don't have to be Catholic to do this, my parents aren't and they did it anyway, burry a statue of St. Anthony in the front yard for good luck. Just be sure to dig it up and take it with you when the house sells. Superstitious? Yes. But who are my folks to argue with the advice of a dozen Italian grandmas lol.

shaydenise · February 2012

Yeah I remember summer always being our busy time which is why I think that's when we'd like to list.

Hey, whatever gets the job done right? I'm not Catholic but I come from a long line of Catholics so maybe that's a good idea ha ha.

K&J64 · February 2012

Sorry, I meant St. Joseph. Don't burry the wrong Saint! Who knows what bad luck that would bring lol. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119370066239175607.html

cheeseandrice · February 2012

I've heard right about now is the best time to get listed, because people will start looking once football season is over.

We started looking in March last year and didn't have much competition. By April though, a lot of the houses we looked at had offers within a day or two of us seeing them (only a few days after being listed.)

And, just as the perspective of a buyer, I don't think it looks nearly as bad right now to see that a house has been listed for awhile. I know in the past, when the market was good, it was like a sin if your house had been listed for a month.

K&J64 · February 2012

30 days on the market wouldn't make me blink as a buyer, but honestly once a house got into the 90 to 120 day range I started to wonder what was wrong with it. Yes the market isn't awesome and there's a lot of houses listed these days, but for resales I still expected them to move whether or not that was an reasonable expectation does matter because it prevented me, and I'm sure other buyers, from even going to see the house in some circumstance.

The biggest thing is make sure the realtor puts a lot of photos up online. If there wasn't a lot of photos I always assumed there was something terrible I would find when I got there.

kd.joseph · February 2012

Have you tried Zillow.com just to get an idea as to where your appraisal should come in?

shaydenise · February 2012

That's good to know about the list time, Steph. That one thing I really worry about - listing too early and then buyers not being interested.

shaydenise · February 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_snarky-brides_house-listing-question?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:17Discussion:c686bd0f-4864-4811-b091-990f4ef38bcaPost:d429080a-b0c8-418b-ad92-34c36b18c51d">Re: House listing question</a>:
[QUOTE]Have you tried Zillow.com just to get an idea as to where your appraisal should come in?
Posted by kd.joseph[/QUOTE]

<div>kd, zillow is completely wacko when it comes to our area. When you look at it's estimates compared to the actual value of homes in the area it's typically 30-50k below. I don't know what the deal is there.</div>

kd.joseph · February 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_snarky-brides_house-listing-question?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:17Discussion:c686bd0f-4864-4811-b091-990f4ef38bcaPost:588a812e-7a14-4024-a3e1-0c24c9f1bac1">Re: House listing question</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: House listing question : kd, zillow is completely wacko when it comes to our area. When you look at it's estimates compared to the actual value of homes in the area it's typically 30-50k below. I don't know what the deal is there.
Posted by shaydenise[/QUOTE]

Must be the heat ;)

I'm no help. Sorry!

SarahPLiz · February 2012

My friend is a realtor and I was just picking her brain about selling our condo the other day. I told her we wanted to list in 6 months but she said that's not a good time and to wait about a year. If I'm fertile myrtle again, I'll be about 5 months pregnant at that point and not wanting to move, but I guess it would be worth it.

One of our neighbors has the only unit for sale in our complex, and he's got it listed for $40K over what anyone has every sold a unit that size (2/2). She says that if he sells, we should list immediately because that means that there are people willing to pay that much out there. She also says he is insane and she is interested in what kind of gold plated toilets he must have.

I'd say just keep watching the listings and sales in your area. And contact a few realtors, just to see what they say. It can't hurt.

cheeseandrice · February 2012

Oh yeah, I agree with kc. LOTS of pictures, and good ones too. That made a huge difference in whether or not we were going to look at a house, tbh.

and, sorry KD, but zillow sucks here too. It showed our house at about $50k above what we bought it for (and we only paid $135k ish, so $50k was a huge difference.) I honestly have no idea where they pull numbers from.

Unless there are houses near you that have sold recently, it's hard to get accurate comps. (and even an appraisal will be hard, since they also pull from nearby comps.)

shaydenise · February 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_snarky-brides_house-listing-question?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:17Discussion:c686bd0f-4864-4811-b091-990f4ef38bcaPost:770433d8-f541-46c2-a68f-dabe220effe3">Re: House listing question</a>:
[QUOTE]Oh yeah, I agree with kc. LOTS of pictures, and good ones too. That made a huge difference in whether or not we were going to look at a house, tbh. and, sorry KD, but zillow sucks here too. It showed our house at about $50k above what we bought it for (and we only paid $135k ish, so $50k was a huge difference.) I honestly have no idea where they pull numbers from. Unless there are houses near you that have sold recently, it's hard to get accurate comps. (and even an appraisal will be hard, since they also pull from nearby comps.)
Posted by Steph+J[/QUOTE]

<div>I *think* zillow pulls from a tax assessment, which from what I understand has really nothing to do with what you should list for. I think, I could be wrong.</div><div>
</div><div>The hard part with us too is that we have a 1.25 acre lot. We are in a subdivision and on a cul-de-sac but our lot size compared to others in our town is huge. Some of the lots are as small as .06 (!!!). We are going to have a beast of a time getting an accurate vaule because of that.</div>

cheeseandrice · February 2012

Yeah, our taxes weren't that high either. Zillow is weird.

And woah, that's a huge lot in a subdivision! When we were looking in the original neighborhood we thought we wanted, we were excited when lot sizes were double digits (like at least 0.10). ha Our lot now is about 1/2 acre, which is perfect for us.

kd.joseph · February 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_snarky-brides_house-listing-question?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:17Discussion:c686bd0f-4864-4811-b091-990f4ef38bcaPost:ff2f2b25-2cff-4006-bcfe-2f4ee9e19bb3">Re: House listing question</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: House listing question : I *think* zillow pulls from a tax assessment, which from what I understand has really nothing to do with what you should list for. I think, I could be wrong. The hard part with us too is that we have a 1.25 acre lot. We are in a subdivision and on a cul-de-sac but our lot size compared to others in our town is huge. Some of the lots are as small as .06 (!!!). We are going to have a beast of a time getting an accurate vaule because of that.
Posted by shaydenise[/QUOTE]

Well I only know that the house I just sold was at one point appraised at 65K, then the bottom dropped out and I had to sell for 50K, just to get out from underneath and my RA gave me all kinds of comps of houses in my area that sold for that price (50K).

I have watched that price raise to 57K on zillow. And H watches are house now, it has stayed pretty steady to what he bought it for until recently.

katiewhompus · February 2012

Holy eff...I looked up my house on Zillow and it says its worth $227. We bought it at $175k, appraised at $179K and tax assessed at $180k. I like Zillows value more

Definitely post lots of pictures! Maybe it's just because we looked so long but I got excited if a house had been on the market for longer than a week. We had so many houses that were listed in the AM, then under contract by the time we drove to see them so I wouldn't even look at new listings after a while.

ceh789 · February 2012

Zillow's opinion on my house makes me cry

Blueyed228 · February 2012

Shay- can you find a similar neighborhood to yours and check out their comps?

Also, around here, appraisals dont mean anything. Every single house we looked at was appraised at around 75K-100K under what it was listed at.

angelsong21 · February 2012

I think this time of year is typically the transition between low buyer traffic and high buyer traffic. We are currently trying to buy a home and every.single.house we have wanted to make an offer on has had at least one offer placed on it within 24 hours. Some have had more than 1 offer in that time. At this point our Realtor has a contract in her car for us to sign right then and there when we find THE house! We've had a lot of disappointments thusfar.

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