Homepath Homes Messing with Comps!

[Kristine Eickman]

So I am trying to buy a home in a particular developement that has pretty equal amounts of regular sales and REO's and short sales. The regular homes are selling for $168,000-$177,000. These are vacation homes so they are sold fully furnished.

The short sales and bank owned have been selling for $140,000-155,000. Most completely stripped and some don't even have appliances. Here comes the issue.....there were two REO's that were Homepath Homes and both were listed at $189,000. Both sold but had not closed so I was not sure what they sold at. Well, the first one just came online and it sold for $180,000! Over the regular home sales! So now I am trying to put a "fair" offer in on a regular sale at $170,000 and my latest comp is a bank owned at $180,000. This is going to push prices even higher than they already are.

Any thoughts on this? Do they normally use REO's as comps on regular sales? Even if they don't - those who are looking to buy a SS or REO are screwed because their prices just jumped $25,000 overnight because of this stupid homepath house.

[Mark Ferguson]

In my opinion the values of houses is based on what people will pay for them due to supply and demand. I don't think HomePath is at fault for listing their house too high, especially if someone paid that much for it. Blame the people buying the homes as they are the ones paying the higher prices.

If you were a seller wouldn't you want the highest possible price as well?