Accurate Valuations Groups Offers Listing Appraisal Services / Pre-Listing Appraisal Services - Listing Your Home?: Peace-Of-Mind Means Having Your Home Physically Measured

    Accurate Valuations Groups Offers Listing Appraisal Services / Pre-Listing Appraisal Services

Headline: Listing Your Home?: Peace-Of-Mind Means Having Your Home Physically Measured

/24-7PressRelease/ - BATON ROUGE, LA, April 13, 2007 - Whether selling your home yourself (FSBO) or listing your home with an agent, the key ingredient to a smooth transaction is an accurate representation of your home's physical characteristics in writing. According to William D. Cobb, IFA (Bill Cobb), with Accurate Valuations Group in Baton Rouge, a critical step in the process of obtaining an accurate representation of your home is acquiring an accurate living area. This crucial step is often skipped. As one of the first steps in determining a home's listing price, an agent will provide a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) which lists selected sales in the surrounding area. This is vital if you are going to maximize your profit and minimize the home's time on the market. However, without an accurate calculation of the living area, the agent's CMA will not be very helpful.

Even if you are working with the most experienced real estate agent, it would be in your best interest to have an "objective" third-party's measurement of your home's living area and value prior to signing a Listing Agreement. A seasoned residential appraiser would be the solution for an objective evaluation.

The Benefits to Obtaining A Listing Appraisal or Pre-Listing Appraisal Prior To Listing FSBO or With An Agent Are:

1.) A professional, color appraisal report placed on the kitchen counter shows the potential buyer that you have done your homework and that your price is well supported. This report acts as a negotiating tool once you have a potential buyer.

2.) A Listing Appraisal Will Include: An Accurate Sketch, Accurate Lot Dimensions, Photos (Interior & Exterior), Flood Map, Location Map, Physical Details Of Your Home, Outline Of Your Neighborhood, Three (3) to Four (4) Comparable Sales and A Current Listing Of Those Comparable Homes Offered For Sale In MLS. Some appraisers provide more in a report, some provide less. When choosing an appraiser, be sure to request what is provided in his/her appraisal report.

3.) Repair or Enhancement Recommendations. Seasoned Appraisers are generally in 25 - 75 homes a month. That's 300 - 900 homes a year. On a daily basis, they see what buyers prefer (what causes homes to sell faster) and what buyers do not prefer (what causes homes to sell slower). Prior to listing, a listing appraisal can recommend: items needing repair (peeling paint, rotten wood, curling roof edges), solutions for decreasing the chances of unknown problems (causing the sale to fall through), and ideas for adding value to your home.

4.) Once you have a buyer, if the buyer's lender will use the same appraiser, the listing appraisal can be easily updated. This could get your buyer to the closing table faster and their appraisal fee lowered. Often, if the appraisal is an update of the original listing appraisal, the fee could be about 50% less for the buyer. This could help you move sooner!

5.) #5 The Most Important Benefit - Obtaining An Accurate Living Area Size Provides Peace-of-Mind. In the United States, the majority of real estate professionals base the price per square foot of a home on living area size. Living area being defined as the area of a home which is heated and cooled, directly accessed from the interior of the home, and having the quality of construction matching the original home. Living Area is measured from the exterior walls, not from the interior walls room-by-room. 2 helpful articles are found @ http://www.ncrec.state.nc.us/bulletin/vol29-4bulletin/squarefootage.htm and http://www.ourappraisal.com/xsites/Appraisers/centralilappraisal/content/uploadedFiles/Sq%20Footage%20GUIDE.pdf. All real estate professionals are to follow the ANSI Standards For Single-Family Residential Buildings (American National Standards Institute) when calculating area home sizes, which recommends physical measurement. In 12/2006, Bill attended 2 days of the combined Apex Appraiser Home Sketching Software and National ANSI Standards seminars in Houston, TX. At that seminar, the ANSI instructor, who is also on the Appraiser Standards Board in South Carolina and delivers disciplinary measures to appraisers, stated that one of the most common lawsuits in Real Estate today is "misrepresentation of living area size".

Here is a scenario: A 2,000sf home is offered for sale @ 12345 Fox Run Drive. The home is priced at $120/sf x 2,000sf = $240,000. Instead of actually measuring the home to obtain an accurate living area, the living area was obtained relying upon County Records, a set of old plans or an estimate of what the typical home size is in that development. The home is listed with a living area of 2,000sf. The home receives a purchase agreement for $240,000 and is accepted. The buyers are pre-qualified, so the appraisal is ordered by the lender. In the meantime, the sellers, needing every dollar of the sales proceeds based on the $240,000 sales price to qualify, submit an offer on a $350,000 home in a neighboring development. The offer is accepted. However, the appraiser for the 12345 Fox Run Dr home turns in her appraisal showing 1,840sf and an appraised value of $220,800, some $19,200 less than the purchase price. The sellers are told that they will have to renegotiate the purchase price because the living area is actually 1,840sf, not the 2,000sf stated in the advertising and on the flyer in the Flyer Box at the curb. The sellers cry foul and sue for misrepresentation of living area and for the fact that they now can't buy the $350,000 home they have now obligated themselves to buy.

Does this actually happen in home sale transactions? According to Bill Cobb, it can and does happen. This is why it is so crucial to have your home measured by the person listing your home, whether by owner or by agent, or preferably, by an appraiser. Bill states, "I've been to homes under contract where the home's contents are boxed up and the seller is ready to move only to find out that their home's living area was not accurately represented. The purchase agreement then has to be renegotiated or is completely broken with no resolution for the buyer to continue the purchase. The buyer's home sell is then thousands of dollars less and much further from a completed sales transaction." Bill also recommends that one should not allow the listing person to state your living area based County Records, an old set of plans (which can and are altered sometimes during construction), or an estimate of what the average home size in your development. Bill urges that "when interviewing the person listing your home, confirm that they are familiar with and follow ANSI, that they will actually measure your home, and provide you a calculated sketch (using sketch calculating software). Upon doing so, you will have written verification of your true living area.


6.) Upon receiving a professional listing appraisal, many people are surprised to learn that the market value of their home is much higher than they realized. In turn, they received a greater profit in the sale of their home. While for others, who have had an inflated opinion of their home's value, the appraisal helped them to realistically price their home in order for it to sell in a more reasonable amount of time. An overpriced home will not attract buyers. This means no offers, no closing, and wasted time, money, and efforts.

A Seasoned Appraiser can step in and help make the necessary decisions on pricing and any potential repairs needed to list with an agent or by owner (FSBO). Unlike a real estate agent, an appraiser has no vested interest in what amount for which the home sells. Appraisal fees are based on efforts to complete the report and not a percentage of the sales price. Therefore, a professional appraisal can often help homeowners make the best decisions regarding investing in their homes and setting a fair sales price. Whether you're considering listing FSBO or through an agent, Bill strongly recommends getting a Listing Appraisal prior to listing your home.

William D. Cobb, IFA, with Accurate Valuations Group has operated as a home appraiser for 15 years primarily in the Greater Baton Rouge, Louisiana market (Baton Rouge, LA; Baker, LA; Zachary, LA; Greenwell Springs, LA; Denham Springs, LA; Walker, LA; Watson, LA; Livingston, LA; Prairieville, LA; Gonzales, LA; Geismar, LA; Sorrento, LA; Port Allen, LA; Brusly, LA; and Addis, LA). For more information on William D. Cobb, IFA and Accurate Valuations Group, visit: http://www.accuratevaluationsgroup.com and http://www.getfastvalue.com . Also, visit William D. Cobb's Blog @ http://www.getfastvalue.com/avgblog
This article was written with the assistance of R. Chandler Smith @ Http://www.cpappraisals.net

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