Pre-Listing and For Sale By Owner Appraisals

Be a Better Informed Seller

You have decided it is time to sell your house because the neighbors down the street got a mint for their house and Zillow is showing a home two blocks over, sold for $30,000 over the asking price. The Zestimate for your home has gone up over 10% in the last year, and unfortunately, so have your taxes. You have a rough idea of how much your home is worth but your real estate agent has other ideas. This is the perfect opportunity to get a pre-listing appraisal. 

Pre-Listing Appraisal

Obtaining a pre-listing appraisal from a real estate appraiser whose sole profession is valuing real estate before putting your home on the market is a wise decision. A professional pre-listing appraisal is far more accurate than a Comparative Market Analysis completed by a Realtor, who is not licensed or certified to be an appraiser to conclude valuation opinions. The more unique and unusual the property, the more valuable an appraisal is prior to going on the market. An inexperienced Realtor might be able to value a tract townhome relatively accurately, but a lakefront property, barndominium, geodesic home, or multi-family property in a neighborhood of single-family homes is much more challenging. 

For Sale By Owner or FSBO Appraisal

The problem compounds when you are trying to sell your property by yourself. There is not a lot of publicly available information on recent sales of real estate and being able to analyze them is almost impossible without proper training and knowledge. All for sale by owners (FSBO) should get an appraisal because the costs of pricing a home incorrectly can be staggering. It is never wise to leave money on the table, and that often happens to FSBO’s, whose property is not necessarily exposed to the larger open market, and who may be taken advantage of by predatory buyers.  

Homeowners often overestimate the value of their property due to their emotional attachment. Overshooting on the value can lead to a property sitting on the market for a long period of time and ultimately several price reductions.  Sometimes the market is skeptical to buy properties that have longer than typical marketing times.  Longer marketing times will also likely result in additional holding costs for the mortgage, insurance, taxes, utilities and maintenance. The problem with a too-low list price is that while you may receive multiple offers, you could be leaving money on the table with an ultimate sale price still less than market value. 

An added benefit of hiring an appraiser such as those at Lake State Realty is that we can accurately measure and calculate the square footage of your home and outbuildings. Many people tend to think their home is larger than it actually is and rarely is the publicly available information at the county accurate. 

Pre-Listing Consultation

With a pre-listing consultation, we can help you determine what maintenance items are required, and what upgrades, updates, or improvements will add value to your home and help get a greater than dollar-for-dollar contribution. We can help answer questions such as: should we fix the drywall issues and repaint, does the landscaping need a facelift, do we finish the basement, should we replace our countertops, etc? We can offer these services standalone or as part of a pre-listing appraisal package. Call us for specific pricing for your needs!