Recently I was preparing a market analysis for a home where I could not find any good comparables. I was told by the owner that it had some historical significance and they had some documentation. I hadn't seen the home yet but could tell in the initial conversation with one of the owners that they working toward preserving it and had a lot of emotional investment in the home. After many attempts from various angles I happened to mention to a fellow agent in my office the difficulty. She suggested that I call an appraiser to get a value price check and referred someone to me. I had never heard of this - probably because I had never needed it before.
As a result of another post regarding pricing adjustments, it was suggested that I talk to an appraiser to find out what they adjust for finished/unfinished basements; 1car/2 car garage etc. in my area. It so happened that I had an appraisal coming up and he allowed me to follow him around. It was very helpful and so I called him for a value price check. He referred me to an appraiser in the area of this home and I was able to get some comps to show my clients. Once I was at the home, I could tell that they thought it was worth more than the market would probably support and that they might break even at best (only owned it for a few years). So I suggested they have a full appraisal done on the home and they agreed.
Also, I have been sent promotions recently by home inspection companies that do a preliminary inspection at a lower cost for a seller with the idea that the buyer will choose them to do a full inspection when the time comes with a cost savings to the buyer. I can't remember exactly how it works but something to that effect. I saw a program on real estate last night where the realtor suggested a full inspection to the seller because they saw evidence of some issues that might need repair and wanted the seller to deal with them sooner than later.
The point of all this, I am wondering how many realtors are using these avenues with the seller before they list the home or find a need for it. The appraiser that I followed to gain some knowledge about adjustments ended up calling me as he was having a little difficulty supporting my sale price. It was a great home and not over priced so I was really surprised by this. It ended up appraising about $2,000 over sale price but about a year ago it would have been a lot more.
