Verifying Sales

[residentialguy]

Information for most, if not all, of the 4 items you cite can usually be found on the MLS listing sheet.

These are not my rules...this is a FNMA rule!. Do you not understand what a requirement is???

You may think that 90 mph is fine...but you're going to get busted regardless of what you think.

 

[ucbruin]

These are not my rules...this is a FNMA rule!. Do you not understand what a requirement is???

You may think that 90 mph is fine...but you're going to get busted regardless of what you think.

I don't understand your point. Other than call the agents on every possible sale comp, I do verify the 4 items. Just not with agents. Does it matter if the agent verbally tells me its arms-length instead of finding out the same info via assessor?

With your standards, I'm surprised that you don't want ever appraiser, before employing sales comps in the report, to speak with both the buyer and seller to find out their motivations. Because only they know what was their true motivation and only the buyer call speak for himself and obviously only the seller can speak for himself. Why do you stop at agents? Take that extra step and seek out the buyer/seller.

 

[Delta85]

What are you talking about? They do too. Why wouldn't the selling agent tell me what was wrong with the house??? Even the listing agent will tell me if some work was needed. The house is sold...they have no more skin in the game. They want good appraisals...falsely glorifying comps would only hurt them. I can't believe how biased some of you are against realtors. And no, I'm not a realtor...never have been.

Often times there are pretty decent condition details on the actual listing. What I was saying, before you blew a vein, was that a realtor is not gonna tell you that the home described as beautifully renovated with new kitchen and bathrooms and other recent updates was actually in need of rehab and unlivable. That's an extreme example but you get my drift. Realtors are not gonna contradict their listing to any real extent. When the MLS description is blank or not descriptive enough then I really press for condition details. And what I get I take with a grain of salt. The other factors like concession details and whether they felt the property sold at, higher, or lower than their opinion of market value are the additional questions I ask.

I do admit to a bias against realtors. Frankly in my experience I've met too many that play fast and loose with facts to really allow anything they say, before, during, or after a closing, to carry much weight.

 

[Michigan CG]

There are many appraisers who think if the data or answer to a question is not available online then "not available through the reasonable course of business" applies.

And that is very sad.

 

[residentialguy]

I don't understand your point. Other than call the agents on every possible sale comp, I do verify the 4 items. Just not with agents. Does it matter if the agent verbally tells me its arms-length instead of finding out the same info via assessor?

With your standards, I'm surprised that you don't want ever appraiser, before employing sales comps in the report, to speak with both the buyer and seller to find out their motivations. Because only they know what was their true motivation and only the buyer call speak for himself and obviously only the seller can speak for himself. Why do you stop at agents? Take that extra step and seek out the buyer/seller.

m2:m2:m2:

Dude, you keep throwing me into it, as if I have any say in it. I don't have a say because it is a FNMA REQUIREMENT that we all must do if we are to accept FNMA work. What you are calling verification, FNMA says no...you can NOT call that verification.
FNMA spells it out clearly: MLS, tax records, deeds, appraisals etc are DATA sources, not verification. You are to verify data sources.

 

[ucbruin]

m2:m2:m2:

Dude, you keep throwing me into it, as if I have any say in it. I don't have a say because it is a FNMA REQUIREMENT that we all must do if we are to accept FNMA work. What you are calling verification, FNMA says no...you can NOT call that verification.
FNMA spells it out clearly: MLS, tax records, deeds, appraisals etc are DATA sources, not verification. You are to verify data sources.

So the written words on the listings sheets, when verified with assessor data, registry of deeds, public records, etc. are data sources. But the verbal conversation with the same agent who wrote the words is verification. Got it!!!!

 

[DTB]

These are not my rules...this is a FNMA rule!. Do you not understand what a requirement is???

It is another Catch-22 situation as we're trying to explain, tell where your conversation with an agent fits into the definition of verify.

ver·i·fy [ver-uh-fahy] Show IPA
verb (used with object), ver·i·fied, ver·i·fy·ing.
1.
to prove the truth of, as by evidence or testimony; confirm; substantiate: Events verified his prediction.
2.
to ascertain the truth or correctness of, as by examination, research, or comparison: to verify a spelling.
3.
to act as ultimate proof or evidence of; serve to confirm.
4.
Law.
a.
to prove or confirm (an allegation).
b.
to state to be true, especially in legal use, formally or upon oath.

 

[PLCG]

You just never know. One of my favorite verifications was for a land sale with public water nearby. I spoke to the broker. Turns out the water was nearby - just across a country road, through another parcel, and across a 4 lane limited access highway. Geographically nearby... but never gonna happen. Sometimes I'm just floored by the information I get from confirming sales.

 

[DTB]

You just never know. One of my favorite verifications was for a land sale with public water nearby. I spoke to the broker. Turns out the water was nearby - just across a country road, through another parcel, and across a 4 lane limited access highway. Geographically nearby... but never gonna happen. Sometimes I'm just floored by the information I get from confirming sales.

That was not verification of anything, it was new information. If you wanted to verify if the new information was indeed accurate, the water utility would have been the place for verification.

 

[Joe Flacco]

I like speaking with agents. I don't ask them only questions about the property but other things like what they are currently seeing going on with the market. The news keeps saying that sellers will come out this year and the market wont be under supplied like last year but speaking with agents it seems as though supply and demand situation is going to be similar to 2013. They are getting a lot of calls from buyers and having a tough time finding sellers.

In my opinion, not speaking with agents is a bad habit to get into. Just like not driving comps is a bad habit to get into. It really doesn't take too much time or effort.