| 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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