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The "hard" evidence that sellers can use
like weapons to defend their asking price sometimes overwhelms and
intimidates buyers. Be prepared to let seller's defenses roll off your
back without compromising your position. Willingly, sellers will bring
out appraisals, market-value estimates by real estate agents, computer
printouts of homes sold in the neighborhood, and cost receipts of
improvements that have been made.
Be prepared to attack as follows:
An Appraisal: No matter how expert the appraiser, he
or she can't put a price on your home. No one can ever understand all
the factors that are important to you. An appraiser judges what's
important to him or her.
Market-Value Estimate by a Real Estate Agent: Giving
free market evaluations is the way real estate agents get business.
It's a device to butter up sellers and entice the sellers to
"come list with me." As such, agents wanting the listing so
badly sometimes give maximum, often outrageously high, market-value
prices.
Computer Printouts of Homes Sold in the Neighborhood:
Interesting. Worth looking over. Usually these lists are limited to
homes sold by real estate companies, not by owners. Sometimes homes on
the list are carefully selected to justify a higher price. Check
with a buyer's broker for the true story.
Cost Receipts of Improvements Made: Again,
interesting. But not necessarily suited to your needs. I know buyers
who paid more for a home without the extra finished room. They didn't
want to have to keep up the extra space.
This Homebuyers Tip was excerpted
from:
Buying More House for Less Money,By Cecil Lohmar,
Probus Publishing Company, 1990
ISBN# 1557381623
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