The "hard" evidence that sellers can
use like weapons to defend their asking price sometimes
overwhelms and intimidates buyers. Be prepared to let seller's
defenses roll off your back without compromising your
position. Willingly, sellers will bring out appraisals,
market-value estimates by real estate agents, computer
printouts of homes sold in the neighborhood, and cost receipts
of improvements that have been made.
Be prepared to attack as follows:
An Appraisal: No matter how expert the
appraiser, he or she can't put a price on your home. No one
can ever understand all the factors that are important to you.
An appraiser judges what's important to him or her.
Market-Value Estimate by a Real Estate Agent:
Giving free market evaluations is the way real estate agents
get business. It's a device to butter up sellers and entice
the sellers to "come list with me." As such, agents
wanting the listing so badly sometimes give maximum, often
outrageously high, market-value prices.
Computer Printouts of Homes Sold in the
Neighborhood: Interesting. Worth looking over. Usually these
lists are limited to homes sold by real estate companies, not
by owners. Sometimes homes on the list are carefully selected
to justify a higher price. Check with a buyer's broker
for the true story.
Cost Receipts of Improvements Made: Again,
interesting. But not necessarily suited to your needs. I know
buyers who paid more for a home without the extra finished
room. They didn't want to have to keep up the extra space.
This Homebuyers Tip was
excerpted from:
Buying More House for Less Money,By Cecil
Lohmar, Probus Publishing Company, 1990
ISBN# 1557381623
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