Skip to content
×
PRO
Pro Members Get Full Access!
Get off the sidelines and take action in real estate investing with BiggerPockets Pro. Our comprehensive suite of tools and resources minimize mistakes, support informed decisions, and propel you to success.
Advanced networking features
Market and Deal Finder tools
Property analysis calculators
Landlord Command Center
$0
TODAY
$69.00/month when billed monthly.
$32.50/month when billed annually.
7 day free trial. Cancel anytime
Already a Pro Member? Sign in here

Join Over 3 Million Real Estate Investors

Create a free BiggerPockets account to comment, participate, and connect with over 3 million real estate investors.
Use your real name
By signing up, you indicate that you agree to the BiggerPockets Terms & Conditions.
The community here is like my own little personal real estate army that I can depend upon to help me through ANY problems I come across.
Buying & Selling Real Estate
All Forum Categories
Followed Discussions
Followed Categories
Followed People
Followed Locations
Market News & Data
General Info
Real Estate Strategies
Landlording & Rental Properties
Real Estate Professionals
Financial, Tax, & Legal
Real Estate Classifieds
Reviews & Feedback

Updated about 5 years ago,

User Stats

49
Posts
13
Votes
Jónas Tryggvi Stefánsson
  • Reykjavík, Iceland
13
Votes |
49
Posts

Receiving different market prices for an apartment

Jónas Tryggvi Stefánsson
  • Reykjavík, Iceland
Posted

I'm looking into investing into a specific apartment. It hasn't been publicly listed as for sale yet, I just happen to know the current owner. The owner asked me to do my own research and make him an offer. The owner has a number in mind, but for now he wishes to keep that to himself.

I got two different local realtors to look the apartment up and visit it on-sight with me, to tell me how much they'd value the apartment at, so that I could look into making an offer if it would make sense as a function of loan-payments, maintenance, bills, rental income and so fourth. I've heard that realtors normally don't handle price evaluation but it seems to be the norm where I'm from (Iceland). 

I made it clear that I wanted to know the market-value, not how low I should necessarily offer if I were buying or how high I should sell if I were selling. Both ended up knowing that I were considering buying but I focused on getting to know the market value of the apartment. They happened to give me offer suggestions as-well which were in their recommended market-value ranges anyway.

Realtor A said the apartment should be valued at $162k - 170.6k and that I should make an offer for the lower amount and not accept anything above the upper limit of this range.

Realtor B said the apartment should be valued at $203k - 211.3k.

Both realtors are used to buying and selling houses and apartments in the area. Neither one has any connection to the seller. After the evaluation I told realtor B about Realtor's A evaluation and while he didn't exactly agree with it he did say that I could attempt to make initial offers at Realtor's A range (upper-limit) and see how the seller responds.

How do I determine the actual market value using these very different ranges? Do I need a third valuation? The gap here seems to be quite high. Do I just take the median value? 

The place could be rented from anything between $1381 - $1585 in its current situation. Its unlikely that any deal I can get out of this would go above the 1% rule but it would be possible to get anything from three quarters close up to the percentage in a best case scenario. I'd be taking a mortgage for ~85% of the purchase price. 

I'm a first time investor, just having read the ABCs of real estate investing and I'm going through Brandon Turner's "The book on Rental property investing". I hope you can help me understanding how to go about this gap and perhaps where you'd make your offer knowing these ranges and rental ranges. Thanks! 😊