VERIFY your comps

[Jeff Warner]

I just wanted to point out something that happened to me the other day that might help people just starting out. I was working a new area and negotiating a deal with a seller so I made a phone call to get comps on the property.

When I opened up my email to check the comps I did not believe the value the comps were showing so I went to the county site to see what moron was paying these ridiculously high prices. Comps showed the property value at $171k, from working the area I had an idea and figured it would be closer to $120k .

When I went to the county site, the sales were on record and legit....but they we're BANKS buying the properties when they went to foreclosure. This is an example of someone not giving a CR@P about the quality of information they give you. The only reason I point this out is to alert newbies to learn an area so that you can spot bogus comps and save yourself from looking like a jack @ss to your buyers. Getting comps from a realtor can be good but VERIFY the info so that you can catch a problem before your buyer does.

Jeff

[Karen Parker]

Originally posted by Scott M.:

I seem to be a lone voice on BP about using appraisers to pull comps in areas where your not familiar - and before you close on deal even then (if an appraised value is going to be an important number - if your buying with cash and holding the value isn't all that important.

Zillow / realtor.com etc are jokes for comps - maybe to get an idea of what the home was worth a year ago use those sites :)

Realtors are not very good at it either and if your deal is contingent on financing - meaning you HAVE to know the value - spend the $25-$100 and get an appraiser to pull you the real deal comps.

I'm suggesting using Zillow with other sites. Zillow gives great details as well as the mileage which some other sites don't give and B of A is pretty darn accurate.

I have friends that are mortgage brokers who use an appraiser to get their comps but just to get a quick overview to determine if a place is worth even fooling with, I prefer to just pull something up online quickly,.