San Diego – My Short Sale Guide Blog Series

Determining Your San Diego Home’s Value Step 3

This is the point in the game where it’s going to help having an experienced San Diego real estate expert on your team. If you want to have a few laughs, you can try one of those home evaluation website to find out your home value. One problem: they’re grossly inaccurate. If you want to find out your home value, a true San Diego real estate professional will understand the subtle as well as not so subtle nuances in your market place that can change your home’s value – things like pent-up demand due to a lack of similar inventory or recently sold comparables that really aren’t all that comparable and know how to adjust for the differences.

 It’s important that the valuation be precise, reliable and logical. A real estate expert will create and provide a B.P.O. (Broker Price Opinion). The B.P.O will show the (3) most comparable recent sales and (3) most comparable active listings. It will also explain price adjustments. In a perfect world, they’d find exact model matches right next door or just across the street from your home however things usually (read never) go that easy and when they don’t…

Your real estate advisor will strive to show the bank comparables within a 2 mile radius that were built roughly the same time and include basically the same features and are approximately the same size that have sold within the past 12 months. When this is not possible, they will need to begin making adjustments to distance, age, features, size etc. until they come up with the most logical comparables.

The BPO will incorporate and explain adjustments made to the value determination based on any number of possible scenarios including but not limited to property condition, area noise, views, neighborhood blight, proposed community changes, proximity to shopping, parks, schools, airports – anything that can affect value.

If and when your lender agrees to entertain the short offer you submit, they will send an appraiser out or hire a local real estate broker to provide a B.P.O. for them. If your real estate professional under priced the property, expect the lender to want a higher offer. If they over-priced it, expect the lender to agree with it and then you’re stuck later when it doesn’t sell and you have to negotiate for a price reduction. Understandably, they want the highest and best offer or an offer that reflects fair market value based on their own BPO or appraisal.

Your listing agent should seek the highest and best offer that he or she can obtain. The bank needs to feel their best interests are truly being represented since they are the ones taking the loss and paying all the costs and fees associated with the sale. Many “typical real estate agents” will make the often times fatal mistake of either under or over-pricing the home and/or submit the very first offer they receive straight away to the bank.

A true San Diego real estate expert will always demonstrate to the bank that they have done all they possibly can to determine fair market value and obtain the best possible offer.

Let me say one last thing about determining your home’s value. Your home is only worth what somebody is willing to pay you for it.

How do most interested home buyers determine what to offer? Hint: It’s not your asking price. Your asking price plays only a small part in that it either attracts or repels offers.

If your asking price is too high because you’re working with a typical real estate agent who either a) didn’t have a clue when suggesting the list price or b) allowed you to dictate the price based on your own emotional attachments and intuition because they were intimidated by you, most buyers will simply ignore your home and it will stagnate on the market, becoming harder and less likely to sell with each passing day.

A home that’s been on the market 30 days is harder to sell than a home that’s been on the market 3 days. Why? First, buyers assume something must be wrong with it and second, if they are interested, they will assume you don’t have any other offers and low-ball you.

A typical real estate agent doesn’t know how to handle this self-inflicted chaos. They will either accept the low ball offer (which the bank will reject) or make a pathetic effort at counter offering the buyer up but at this point it’s often times too late because you’re now only attracting bottom feeders who either can’t afford to increase their offer or are only looking for “deals” and all the while the clock keeps ticking.

Many short sales fail and become foreclosures because the bank got tired of waiting for your agent to “get real”, that’s why it’s critical you work with a true real estate professional who understands all of this.

Call San Diego short sale specialist Gary Kent at 858-457-5368 for a quick confidential analysis of your situation.

San Diego short sale expert Gary Kent has written the book on short sales. Gary would like to offer the San Diego Short Sale Guide to you for free – Short Sale Guide.
To find out how much your San Diego home is worth compared to owe much you owe, go to www.ShortOrStaySanDiego.com
The Gary Kent Team of Keller Williams is a California Real Estate Broker, License 00862878. We are not licensed to provide legal or tax advice and we encourage our clients to seek legal and/or tax advice early in the short sale process.

by Gary Kent. Gary has successfully helped well over 200 clients and their families sell their homes or other real estate via a short sale. In 1991, he closed his first short sale for a young family, and since has been helping clients get out of stressful financial situations, escape from “under water” mortgages, avoid foreclosure (and the accompanying stigma), save their credit, and maintain their pride through a short sale. You can find Gary on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.