Agents that Can't Comp

[Ann North]

I'm so at the bottom of my rope here with our rental property! I know there are some great and wonderful agents, I've met them, it's just in this particular area of Southern California I have had the hardest time. I am starting to think some of the Zillow reviews might be fake, I don't know, maybe not but I have had terrible luck finding ethical and even just normal agents. If I reach out to them, I start getting hounded. One agent started video taping 'imaginary' or pitch like conversations with me and sending me the videos! Isn't this a bit overkill dude? Others start texting me constantly and emailing me constantly. But my biggest gripe?

They cannot comp!!!

All they do is pull recent solds in like a 3 mile radius!!! This is not comping!!! I'm at my wits end.

Our property, first of all is NEW CONSTRUCTION. It was newly built at the end of 2015-2016. It is a HUGE townhouse - about 2600 square feet. It is LEGIT 5 BEDROOMS 4 FULL baths and ALL upgraded in a gated community with a pool. In addition, it has a main level in-law suite/2nd master/home office room.

Our area has appreciated quite a bit but these (insert expletive) agents keep coming me lower than what we paid! This is because one person in a house that isn't even like ours on a busy road fire sold their house. The one next door to us last year sold for a decent amount and it was smaller and not as nice as ours... for some reason this house doesn't come up on comps???

The area in SoCal is very master planned. The agents are used to knowing every floorplan and it all being the same but we are in a gated community where all the houses are $900,000-$1,000,000. We are a townhouse. 

Also, this is now a rental/investment property. None of the agents seem to even understand that. We are near a pricey private college, a community college, and an amusement park -- all making for great rental. We had great tenants for 3 years.

So I had a couple agents who knew the area comp it right and I should've gone with them. Instead, I didn't and one agent convinced me to put it on MLS really low to "get a bidding war." Well turns out they were flipping it to someone they knew! Of course they had multiple offers because they had priced it about $80,000 below market. (I found out they didn't tell us about all the offers but that's another story.) This caused us damage and now Zillow dropped our value about $100k. The Zestimate was good and then overnight, it got the bogus list price and dropped. Zillow doesn't show the multiple offers we had. This is a lesson to anyone trying to manage a property from another state -- beware.

I am going to make a deal with an acquaintance who's reached out and is interested. But how do I fix the Zestimate? How do I fix these moronic comps that aren't comparable? (and yes I know because I spoke to an independent appraiser.)