<p>Zillow does not know what your house is worth. Maybe the agent you have does, or maybe not. The agent should know the comps (and know what they look like, inside and out.) They should call the agents of the sold comps and ask if any credit was given back, ie, thousands of dollars given back to buyer to cover repairs or closing costs. Once the price is set, if you have no lookers, you are at least 10% to 20% or more over-priced. If you have plenty of traffic but no offers within 30 days, drop the price 5-10%, because you are overpriced by that much. If you still have no offers, drop it again after 15 days. Repeat. But it’s better to get the price correct in the beginning. In our area, it really helps to stage the house, unless it’s a true major fixer, in which case the price needs to reflect that.</p>
<p>If the house is really unusual, but fantastic, sometimes you will get more $ with more time, because it appeals to a very specific buyer who might not show up in the first month or two. But not usually, especially in this time of year. </p>
<p>Interview 3 realtors and see what they come up with. But Zillow is not really useful, it’s just entertaining.</p>
<p>Sometimes an agent will under price a home in order to generate multiple offers (and an ensuing bidding war). Some agents will market themselves on their ability to sell quickly-you’ve seen their ads- “This luxury property sold in only 3 days!” Yeah, because it was a steal). And some are simply telling you what the market will bear. A house isn’t “worth” what you paid, or what you need, what you put into it, or what you think you “deserve.”. It’s only worth what someone is willing to pay.</p>
<p>The best way to find out what someone is willing to pay is to look at the comps. Not Zillow, not even the tax appraisal. Look at the comps.</p>
No - this was a long time ago. I used it as an illustration not to take a particular realtor’s word for it without sanity checking - not as advice of what the OP should do right now although I probably wasn’t clear on that. On that deal qualifying wasn’t an issue because the buyer was putting more than 30% down. This was an older buyer who had the money. On top of everything, I think I got lucky that time.</p>
<p>Given that, I’d be willing to give it a try again depending on circumstances of how quickly I needed to sell, the type of property, the particular niche market for where the property is. I’d also be willing to use a realtor depending on circumstances.</p>
<p>One can check the comps on Trulia, at least in my area. Look at actual recently sold prices for similar properties in the same area along with what similar properties in the similar area are listed at. you can come back with the same comps the realtor comes back with. Sometimes the assessor has the recently sold values online as well. I wouldn’t rely on a Zillow ‘estimate’.</p>
<p>I think in my parents’ situation, it’s difficult to find the comps. Most of the homes are either frame homes built in the 1930s, or homes with 3 bedrooms instead of 4. I found a few homes that were their size, but one sold for $100,000 more than what I think my parents’ home is worth, and one sold for $90,000 less. One was a well built home like my parents’ house is, and one looked like it hadn’t been taken care of for years. </p>
<p>So the RE agent asked my father what he wanted for the house. My father, without doing any research, or even asking his children for input, threw out a number, and the agent added $7,000 to it. He apparently had comps, but they were all over the place. He advised selling it for less than new construction, and I agree. But the price is still $27,000 below newly constructed homes that have the same number of beds and baths, but slightly less square footage.</p>
<p>My father is happy with that number, but now one of their friends, who is also a RE agent, is telling them they are pricing it too low. My sister and I agree, but don’t want to get involved because we think it needs to be their decision. Plus, they haven’t asked for our input. I was just curious what the guy’s motive might be, and many of you have given me insight into that. Thank you.</p>
<p>Tell your Dad that he should interview another realtor and get their input before they award the listing. Sort of like surgery-you always want a second opinion.</p>
<p>When in doubt, ask more agents to give listing prices. Do not rely on one inputs. If you really have a problem, spend some thing like $400 to get an appraisal. There are standardard methods to come up with a market value on the house. It is so easy to come up the price of a home that is why the fee is only $400, in a commercial appraisal, the cost will be ten or more times of that.</p>
<p>A newly constructed home is of no comparison to the older homes, the selling price will be more simply people like to buy a new house. Besides, a new house is under 10 years warrenty from the builder.</p>
<p>I’m a Real Estate agent for a Sotheby’s affiliate.</p>
<p>Zillow is most often highly inaccurate and your situation is a common experience with many people who are contemplating selling their homes. For my own previous home it was almost $80K too low. I’ve honestly never seen it portray an accurate value any time I’ve ever looked.</p>
<p>In the current market some agents are “buying” listings by purposely pricing homes too high/telling the sellers what they want to hear, rather than the truth. This practice while being disingenuous also truly hurts the seller in the long run.</p>
<p>The most critical time for any listing is the first few weeks…that’s when the most "buzz’ will be created. If the asking price is too high, the sellers lose that “golden time” and all momentum is lost. </p>
<p>Pricing a home for sale is an art and requires plenty of due diligence and market analysis of actual sold homes that are comparable in age, condition, amenities, size and location.</p>
<p>The single most important question you need to have answered is: at this asking price is my house “in” the market or “on” the market?</p>
<p>If it’s priced correctly (“in the market”) and marketed properly it will sell quickly regardless of the city you are in. If it’s not priced correctly (“on the market”) you can expect it to remain “on the market” until it is priced correctly.</p>
<p>This does NOT mean underpricing greatly for a quick sale, simply pricing it correctly when it first hits the listing service.</p>
<p>Pick the best local agency, look at their website and agent profiles and select two or three to interview. You want honesty, not smoke blown up your skirt/pants regarding asking price. Ask them how they plan to market your house and go with your gut on who can do the best job for you. If you pick the top companies and agents you’re going to find that their market values should be in line. Beware the outlier…they want to buy your listing and in the long run will cost you money. </p>
<p>Your biggest enemy in selling a home is time and the best agent will market your home in a way that will sell your home for the most money in the least amount of time.</p>
<p>That was certainly the case when the market was booming, not so much now. If there is ANY underpricing it is very slight and designed to create some buzz. In these cases the homes generally sell very close to asking price and the sales price is usually at or above where it might have been negotiated down to if priced higher to begin with.</p>
<p>FYI since we live in the same city, our market has heated in a BIG way since mid January which is good news for all of us here.</p>
<p>We’re seeing multiple offers and some homes are selling above asking price for the first time in several years. Well priced homes in desirable locations are flying right now.</p>
<p>One other aspect that is likely to downwardly influence the price is if your folks are unwilling to work with the RE agent to have the house “show” really well. I can remember seeing a home for sale of one elderly couple that was still jammed with the clutter of a lifetime, old and musty drapes, and visible packages of incontinence supplies. I suspect it was a hard sell.</p>
<p>Arabrab, good point. My parents have been working on their home for the past year, addressing repairs and making sure everything is in good condition. Their home is by no means cluttered. Plus, my mother is a clean freak, so the house is cleaner than most. It will show well. I predict that when it is listed this Friday, at what I consider to be a seriously deflated price, that it will sell within a week.</p>
<p>I think this time of the year is a great time to sell. I had found people get excite with the first hints of spring and go out buying. Good luck.</p>
<p>In our real estate market, Zillow prices are too low by hundreds of thousands of dollars. We are in a little bubble at the moment with Facebook and other IPO money fueling a boom combined with low inventory…Zillow just doesn’t accurately reflect current reality here.</p>
<p>Yes, our experience with this was during a market boom. A house we adored came on the market. Within the first day, I checked the price and couldn’t believe how low it was. I called the agent, to be told that it had gone under contract the first day with 7 backups, all well over asking. That was my first experience with this sort of thing, and I’ve seen it happen since, all in up markets as you say.</p>
<p>That certainly is good to hear. Our youngest will graduate in June; I think within the year we will begin preparing our house for sale. It is too big for the two of us; the beautiful back yard pool/gazeebo/outdoor kitchen/etc. remains unused all too often and deserves a younger family to enjoy it! Not to mention we are tired of all the upkeep.</p>
<p>Market determinds everything. Listing prices, zillow, trulia or any home estimator are only for the reference. In a down market, you cannot keep up to lower the price enough to sell the property, in a up maket, you cannot imagine how fast the price will rise.</p>
<p>I was told that in my neighborhood, at one time in the past, the prices of the house went up 50K/month. That is why strange things happen while my neighbor bought his brand new one for 460K, whereas half a mile away, the other guy bought his for over 650K a year and half later with smaller lot.</p>
<p>Things really have heated up in the Bay Area and in CA, Bank owned REOs are reducing at an alarming rate. Just 3 months ago, REO’s on the auction block were over 300 units in CA. With some desirable areas such as Burlingame and Novato. Today, the inventory is half of those and mostly in the out skirts of the Bay Area. One in Newport Beach starting 1.1Million and aiming for 2+ mil., all cash.</p>
<p>a 30K listing price difference is nothing, depends where it is. A desirable Menlo Park WEST side home was listed 299K, it was ended up sold at $450K+. Just for your info, Facebook is only 2 miles away from this location. I was the under bidder among 35 of us.</p>
<p>It would be helpful if you mentioned the percentage of the discount to valuation rather than the dollar amount. I still mourn the loss of the “Dear Abby” of real estate, Robert Bruss. He had a weekly column in the business section with no nonsense advice for home sellers and buyers. The two points he emphasized repeatedly were:
Interview 3 successful agents in your area
Do not sign a contract for more than 90 days</p>
<p>Here is a summary of his advice from a web site:</p>
<p>price on zillow or any other house estimaters can have wild swing. One day I looked up my house on zilliow it was priced 300K below what I paid for just 9 months ago. Today, a year after I bought the house, the estimate is 80k MORE thana what I paid for… A swing of $380k and it could be common place.</p>
<p>As suggested, interview more Realtors are more important than sitting there play cyber games.</p>
<p>You can list at any price you want. However, if you want to sell in addition to listing, you need to list at current market value. Otherwise, sky is a limit. My guess is that RE agent wants to sell.</p>