With the current market conditions in the Reno-Sparks real estate market it is more important than ever for sellers to get all the facts about the market value of their home before listing. With prices increasing fairly rapidly over the past several months, many homeowners who were previously underwater may now find themselves with equity. Definitely a game changer.
So what is the best way to know what your current market value is? Meet with an agent that shows you all the recent comparable sales. Once you have reviewed the comps and work with your agent to determine a list price, your agent should then be putting your property in the Multiple Listing Service.  Once in MLS your home will be exposed to ALL the buyer’s agents who have buyers looking for homes, and buyers searching for homes on the Internet. You may get multiple offers and receive over asking price based on current market conditions.
We are seeing many agents take listings and offer them to in-house agents or preferred investor clients and not putting the properties in the MLS. Often times these listing agents are offering the home below market value. By doing this you are not exposing your property to the entire market and risk getting less for your property. Why should you care???
I often hear from other agents that most short sale sellers don’t care what the price they get is as long as the bank will accept it. I beg to differ. I think the price received on a short sale is very important to the short sale seller. In some cases getting a higher price may prevent the sale from being a short sale at all, saving the homeowner from all the negative ramifications of a short sale. Getting fair market value with the first offer will often times shorten the approval time on a short sale as it prevents multiple counter offers from the bank. We often see short sales come back on the market after being listed ridiculously low only to get a counter significantly over the initial price from the bank.  In addition, when calculating Mortgage Debt Forgiveness which is a taxable event for many short sale sellers, the higher the sales price the lower the amount of debt forgiven and ultimately a lower taxable event.
So, sellers don’t let your agent talk you into signing an MLS waiver to keep your home off MLS so they can get an offer from someone in their office. Don’t let them lead you to believe that only they have the perfect buyer for your home. Insist that your property be placed onto the MLS to ensure that you get the best offer this market can bring. Who knows how long the current “seller’s market” conditions will last. Be sure to maximize your sales price.
For more information about short sales or for a no obligation market analysis of your property call me today.
