Determine the Value of Your Property
- There are three ways we recommend to determine the value of your property.
- If you are familiar with your area you may already know the value of your property. If this is the case trust yourself!
- Have the property appraised. This will cost you some money but it will be the most accurate check of the current value. (Click here for a list of some appraisers.)
- Have a real estate agent do what they call a “comparative market analysis” (CMA). This is a fancy name for little more than a real estate agent’s guess. Most agents will tell you any dollar amount you need to hear to get you to sign their listing contract. If you list, and the price is too high they will come back to you next month and talk you into dropping your price, all while in the mean time you continue paying your mortgage payments. Your mortgage payment does not reduce their commission in any way so they generally don’t care how long it takes you to sell. While we suggest you talk to three agents and ask them all for a CMA, we recommend you never sign a listing contract with any of them at the meeting when they give you “price guess”. They would like to “close the deal”. Tell them the truth “you are interviewing several agents be fore you decide how to proceed.”
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