There were comments in response to my post about Virtual Broker Open Houses that agents would never give their opinion on price without seeing a home in person first.
When possible, it is best to view a property in person but when agents say they would never, ever give an opinion of value without physically seeing a property first, I find that hard to believe.
Be honest, at some point during your entire real estate career, have you ever completed a market analysis or given an opinion of value
without seeing a home in person first?
I can think of a few examples agents may give their professional opinion of a home's value without actually seeing the home in person:
- A home owner finds an agent online and wants a market analysis completed, or wants an idea what their home's market value is. The real estate agent obtains details about the home over the phone and schedules a time to meet the home owner at the property for the listing appointment. Do agents always get a chance to see the home before completing the analysis? What if the home is tenant occupied? The owner may not want the tenant to know of the home possibly going up for sale and prefers the agent does not view the home yet.
- A lender calls to ask if an agent thinks a home would appraise for a refinance to see if it's worth it for his/her client. The lender gives the agent a general price point the appraisal would have to come in at and asks for a professional opinion after giving information to include the address and home details.
- A drive-by BPO or appraisal, agents have done these and so have appraisers. An opinion is completed without walking through the interior of the property.
- A fellow agent has a listing that is not selling or that is going to be listed and asks you to complete an analysis for a second opinion. Have you ever given an opinion on price to a colleague without seeing the home and solely going off of information online or information the agent gives you?
- Casual conversation. Have you heard agents discussing real estate and the subject of a particular home or listing comes up and one of the agents (who has never seen the home) says, "that home sounds really overpriced for that particular area!"
- When writing an offer for a buyer. The agent completes a CMA and informs the buyer about general market activity in the area and comparable homes that have recently sold or are pending in the same neighbhorhood. The agent views details for each comp in the MLS and may call the listing or selling agent for some of them to find out more about condition. Do the agents actually go see the comparables in person? I highly doubt they do, appraisers do not even do that. They couldn't gain access to sold properties anyway. Without seeing the comparable homes in person, is the agent completing a fair analysis of the subject property?
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