Teresa,
I am working with a realtor who seemed upset at me because I wanted to offer $45K less than the asking price on a property. I know it is a buyer's market and www.willow.com appraised similar properties a lot lower than what these sellers wanted. I don't understand why this realtor was upset. I do my research on my own plus listen to the realtor's advice. What do you think about online appraisal figures and was I right?
Dear P.,
I cannot tell you if your online appraisal figures were accurate or not, nor can I tell you if you were right in asking for $45K lower, without knowing what property it was you were making an offer on. As a buyer you can ask any amount you want in an offer to buy. What matters is if the sellers accept your offer.
Many buyers think that what appraisal values they find online are accurate, which is not always the case. Most online appraisal sites obtain their information from tax records and as you know taxes on properties in Maryland are accessed every three years. So the appraisal you get online could be anywhere from three years old on up to it's actual present value. If you wish to know what the value of a home is, Realtors can perform a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) on the property, which compares like homes which have sold in the past 6 months, and from that you can get a good idea what your property of interest is worth. Of course, the most accurate appraisal on the value of a property is obtained through a licensed appraiser.
I can site you some examples on how online appraisal sites can be inaccurate: My broker who lives in Frederick went online to see what an online appraisal site would appraised his home at and his home was appraised at 775K and no home in his housing development has sold for over $675K in the past three years. Another example, a local realtor did the same thing, ran an appraisal for her property using an online appraisal site and she laughed when the site used a vacant lot across the street from her as a comparable to her four bedroom, 3000 sq foot home!
My advice is to listen to your Realtor and put faith in him/her to lead you with the best advice there is. It is frustrating for us Realtors at times to compete with online appraisal sites, when the public seems to trust everything they read online as being the truth without knowing the source and accuracy of their data.
If you have questions or concerns to submit? I would love to hear from you.
