Verifying Sales With a Realtor

[Michigander]

When you work a small little area you become quite familiar with the different agents and often establish a good rapport. My favorite means of verification is a brief email requesting information about condition, often asking if there was anything unusual about the sale that they want to share (they usually do) and any motivations that they were aware of that drove the buyer to this property over another. FTR, my preference was to talk/email with the SELLING agent, not the listing agent, since they were the ones working with the eventual buyer. OTOH, the listing agent can tell you what the comments were and the activity was on the house. Both are good to chat with, and in my experience, most are good about getting back with a polite appraiser who approaches without a chip on their shoulder.

 

[residentialguy]

Here is the perfect example. Have a high end home to appraise and I find 7 comps ranging in sales price from $350,000 to $625,000.

Sale two sold for $400,000 and is a little low in terms of $/SF but not bad out of line. The MLS says "Add your finishing touches" buried in the description.

I call Listing Realtor and she says the home is not finished all the way and needs kitchen counters, it has no garage and the master bath is not finished. I ask how much $$ to make the property comparable to other properties and she says $30,000.

I then call the buyers agent. She tells me there is no trim in the home, the exterior stonework is not done, it has no driveway or concrete pad. Some flooring on the main level was missing in addition to what Realtor #1 said.

I ask how much $$ and she says they spent $60,000 so far and have $20,000 to go to make it comparable to other similar houses.

The MLS photos do not show any of these discrepancies and without verification of the sale through BOTH Realtors I would not have known any of this and the value of the subject would have come in significantly lower considering I thought it was my best comparable.

No one can convince me that verification through Realtors and/or buyer and/or sellers is not a requirement to do this job correctly and diligently.

nay, nay, nay :new_multi:




said strictly out of concern for Mich's ears

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