Whether you seek to purchase or sell a property, you can easily totter into a thorny patch of real estate facets that often derail a deal. One such daunting detail is the pre-listing appraisal, which, later in the process, can ward off headaches and ensure a smooth transaction for everyone involved.
Sharon Hodnett, a prominent broker in Dallas – Fort Worth and a Haute Residence partner, representing the Southlake area, said that pre-listing appraisals, conducted by an independent third party, provide a valuable “second opinion,” divorced from agents’ faculties to set the right price.
More than a mere price gauge, a pre-listing appraisal could reveal matters such as erroneous square footage that often plague permits at government agencies. In doing so, it offers an accurate estimate of property taxes.
Wielded as a credibility stamp for an MLS presentation, an initial appraisal “gives the buyer a warm, fuzzy and confident feeling that there will be no appraisal value issues when the lender of choice orders and completes the appraisal for a loan,” Hodnett said.
Sellers are also poised to benefit from completing an evaluation on their residences before putting them on the market. Knowing the true value of a home thwarts the common mistake of setting an exorbitant asking price, which frequently leads to languishing listings.
“A home that is not appraised can sit on the market and get ‘stale,’ much like stale bread at the grocery store,” said Hodnett. “No one wants stale bread and no one wants a ‘stale’ or overprice home.”
A house that consistently fails to find a new owner could also invite concerns about potential flaws. Even if such do not exist, once a stigma of perceived deficiencies engulfs a home, it is hard to repel. It could also trigger requests for price reductions.
“‘If I buy it, I need to buy it at a discount because I may not be able to sell in a timely manner, either, if I purchase the home’,” Hodnett said, exemplifying the thoughts that race in prospective buyers’ mind.
To put it succinctly, a pre-listing appraisal could be a deal maker – and Hodnett regularly advises clients to takes advantage of it in the right circumstances. Thus, combined with her marketing acumen, it comes as a little surprise that her listings close faster and secure higher prices than those of other agents.
“I would highly suggest them, especially if there is a large range of prices and values,” said Hodnett. “If all agents knew how to properly price a home, we would not have so many sitting on the market for extended amounts of time.”
Sharon Hodnett is the real estate agent exclusively representing the Southlake, Texas market as a part of the Haute Residence real estate network. View all of her listings here.
