Selling house... Asking price differences

[Diane]

We were hoping to finally get my FIL's house officially up FOR SALE by the end of next week. Two realtor's have done "comparison's" of other houses to give us an idea as to how much we should try to sell the house for. One realtor came back with comparison's that consisted of only a few houses from the same "general" area of his house, while he included a few others that were nowhere around his house. His thoughts were to sell it for an asking price of $225,000.00. Another realtor did comparisons ONLY of other houses IN his area. It showed that all of those houses sold for anywhere between $289,000 to $345,000... Some weren't even half as nice/clean or large as my FIL's house. Anyway... this realtor told us that we'd be crazy not to ask at least $309,000.00. He said we could always go down... but felt positive that he could sell it for this price. Quite a difference, huh??? Well, someone told us that some realtors will high price a house just to get your business... This particular realtor told us that Lake properties around my FIL's area are pretty sparce and people who want them are usually quite willing to pay whatever it takes in order to acquire them... Would you ask the higher price? Of course we want to get as much as we can get for it but we also don't want to ask so much that nobody will even look at it... and we want to sell it as quickly as we can. I know that we can accept offers... but I guess were leary because of the big difference in price. I'm also wondering why both did comparisons but yet they came up with such different conclusions? What would you do?

Diane... :wave:

[AnnW]

You usually look at the comps (comparables) of like houses, in the same area for "x" amount of months depending on how sales have gone. When we bought our house, comps went out about 6-9 months, but now with it being such a sellers market, comps are only going out about 4 weeks (the prices keep going up). If your's is an area where there are not alot of sales going on, the comps may go out even longer.
What were the prices of the other houses? How long ago did they sell? You really look at square footage, location and floor plan more than paint and paper...new paint and paper help, but sometimes unless it is a major redo all it really does is to help it show better.
Why not try talking to a third agent as sort of a tie breaker and see what s/he says.

[Amy]

Hi Diane,

I used this site to determine how much my Grandmother's value was. You just need to type in his address and it gives you comps in the area and the value of his house. Let me know what this value says-ok? :)

http://realestate.yahoo.com/realestate/homevalues/

[KarlaB]

My first reaction was to say to get a third opinion also. And, to summon our own personal pro angie r for help! :D Around here all lake property is going pretty high - even the tiniest of houses are over $200,000. Since you're not in a position where you have to sell it immediately, why not start out in the higher range and see what happens? :)

Hopefully angie will check in before she leaves for the wknd. :)

[Diane]

The comparison's showed that all/most of the houses sold anywhere within a day to two months... most at their asking prices. Some of the comparables went back as far as two years up until last summer to maybe about 4 months ago. A lot of these houses didn't have any basements... just craw spaces while my FIL's house has a nice BIG walkout basement (partially finished) on one side divided by a wall with a separate laundry/workshop... on the other side. The living room is HUGE with a fireplace, 3 season porch overlooking the lake in the back... dining room, all new kitchen. new carpets throughout and all newly painted walls, all new lighting.... and an attached garage, on 5 acres. Right now it's a REALLY nice house... I wouldn't even mind living in it except I do like my house much better. Lake property usually goes for a lot more than a house just sitting in a regular neighborhood... We had a 3rd realtor but she was a real ditz. She was standing right NEXT to the door going out of the walk out basement and had to ask if it was a walkout. Ugh!!!!!! After telling her what YEAR the house was built she asked if we knew how old it was. LOL We'll have to see but it's SO frustrating because you don't want to price yourself right out of the market but yet if we could actually get that much out of the house, it would be nice. :) I guess we'll have to call in another realtor and see what they come up with... another delay!!

Diane... :wave:

[angie r]

The only issue with pricing it high to begin with is that a listing is "hot" when it first comes on the market. If it is overpriced you may turn off a buyer who looks at the comps and thinks "who are they trying to gouge?" Some realtors will price property high to get the listing and hope you will come down on price.

Lake property is a funny thing....I have seen tiny, old houses sell for 300,000 on the water when you wouldn't pay 30,000 for it elsewhere.

If it were me........I would price it higher. It isn't like you "need" it to sell so you can get into another home. A home is worth what someone is willing to pay for it! Remember that a bank will loan based on the appraisal though. Go for all you can get!!

[AnnW]

Diane..get another realtor to look at it. Good luck!

[Lynda/WA]

I think you've gotten some great advice so far. When we bought our house our agent asked the sellers how they came up with their price. They said they looked at those in the area. Then he ran the numbers as well. He said he took the sale prices of local houses within the last couple of months. After getting an average price they added and subracted value based on what our house had that the others did or didn't. for example. Currently we have one bathroom. That's a minus. You want at least 2. We got extra value for the fireplace. The footage and acreage were also averaged and value added for anything over the average. Value would have been subracted if under the average.

[Diane]

There was an article in our morning paper today and they were talking about realistate and lake front properties/houses. They said that ANYTHING within an hour's drive from the cities will easily sell for $300,000 or more. They said the reason for this is because there just isn't ENOUGH houses on lakes on the market, and people are willing to pay just about anything to get what they want. We talked with the realtor again and he assures us that it will either sell for $309,000... maybe MORE if a lot of people are interested in it or if not... maybe a little bit less, but he doubts if it will be less. We talked with another realtor who hasn't even been out to see the house yet and he also said that just because it's on a lake... it will sell for a lot of $$ and fast. He's coming out some time next week. I'm anxious to see exactly what this house ends up selling for. LOL My FIL would absolutely crap his pants if he knew that his house was worth that much. Of course... it's taken a lot of fixing up to get it to where it is now but when I think about what they paid for it 24 years ago and what it could sell for now... wow! Anyway, I'll let you know what happens with this other realtor. I hope it's at least close to one of the other two or we'll end up having to get ANOTHER opinion. LOL

Thanks!

Diane... :wave:

[Lynda/WA]

On one of the money radio talk shows today, the topic of how much to sell a house for came up. He said get two apprasials. If they are within 5% of each other go with the average. In your case I'd say go with the higher price just because you aren't worried about time.