Well...this sorta hurts the neighborhood

[krm222]

Our neighbors got divorced and practically gave their house away. I think it was a second marriage and there was a kid who only belonged to the wife so they wanted to cut and run. It was priced so low that it actually took a while to sell because people thought it was actively on fire or haunted or something. We printed out a copy of the divorce filing to hang onto in case anyone ever tries to use it as a comp in our neighborhood!

 

[NinaBella]

We printed out a copy of the divorce filing to hang onto in case anyone ever tries to use it as a comp in our neighborhood!

Oh, that seems odd. But I live in Florida where these "comp" ya'll are speaking of do not really matter.

 

[tvguy]

How can a non-realtor get the price for comps? The house just sold 2 houses down from us for about $100K more than our house if assessed at! So ... it goes both ways. Property values go up and so do our taxes.

Sales prices are public record.
Many websites list an estimate of a homes value, which, is just an estimate, but they also list what the house was listed for, and sold for going back decades. Realtor.com and Zillow.com do this. Just put in the address. Some cities post it online too.

 

[tvguy]

well anything is possible...took about 3 months to sell tho and was in the MLS. I look up anything near us when I see the sign to get an idea on pricing. They did list maybe 20 less than homes further from the intersection, but then to accept 55 under that...I know there may be issues or whatever, but it just hurts at first glance. Hopefully whoever is brave enough to sell next starts the pricing back upward.

Well, to grossly over generalize, if it took 3 months to sell, then the original llsting price was too high for the house. It could have issues, it could be the location, something could have happened inside the house. In California, in most cases they have to disclose deaths that happened inside, criminal activity that happened there etc. Or, the real estate market in your area has taken a dip.
You don't say what the selling price is. $75,000 on a $150,000 is a much bigger percentage than $75,000 off a $750,000 house.

 

[adisneyaunt]

Oh, that seems odd. But I live in Florida where these "comp" ya'll are speaking of do not really matter.

Anyone seeking a mortgage thru a third party will have comps...and yes here in fla... perhaps....
buying cash, no comps needed/required but it'd be smart to see what "Comparable" homes are selling for so you don't Overpay.
Many homes here sell for all cash... perhaps that's what ur referring too?

 

[NinaBella]

Anyone seeking a mortgage thru a third party will have comps...and yes here in fla... perhaps....
buying cash, no comps needed/required but it'd be smart to see what "Comparable" homes are selling for so you don't Overpay.
Many homes here sell for all cash... perhaps that's what ur referring too?

In Florida there are so many foreclosures, deaths, divorces, short sales, vandalized homes, Chinese drywall etc. I can easily look up the sales prices of home on the property appraiser website, but it really doesn't matter "why" the home sold for what it did. Most would not go keeping public record documents on homes (my county has a searchable public records if someone wanted to get that deep). But in my "community" there are at least 3,000 homes under the community name divided up into 4 smaller sub-divisions each with their own HOA and clubhouse facilities, and then many gated villages in each sub-division... and continuing to build Vastly different from the OP.

 

[adisneyaunt]

In Florida there are so many foreclosures, deaths, divorces, short sales, vandalized homes, Chinese drywall etc. I can easily look up the sales prices of home on the property appraiser website, but it really doesn't matter "why" the home sold for what it did. Most would not go keeping public record documents on homes (my county has a searchable public records if someone wanted to get that deep). But in my "community" there are at least 3,000 homes under the community name divided up into 4 smaller sub-divisions each with their own HOA and clubhouse facilities, and then many gated villages in each sub-division... and continuing to build Vastly different from the OP.

Not sure how that means comps don't matter ...lol
Maybe I'm just not getting ur explanation but no worries...thx anyway

 

[FINFAN]

Well, to grossly over generalize, if it took 3 months to sell, then the original llsting price was too high for the house. It could have issues, it could be the location, something could have happened inside the house. In California, in most cases they have to disclose deaths that happened inside, criminal activity that happened there etc. Or, the real estate market in your area has taken a dip.
You don't say what the selling price is. $75,000 on a $150,000 is a much bigger percentage than $75,000 off a $750,000 house.

sorry..425 would be average and given the location I could have seen 395 as a starting point, but it was listed at 360 , sold for 10 under that...and to be fair it was listed in November so the holidays can affect sales.

 

[kymom99]

If they listed in November and priced it that low I would assume they were in a hurry

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I do understand your concern for sure. However there are probably multiple variables unbeknownst to you that is affecting the sales price.

For example the house the street behind me had a sales price of over $100,000 MORE than my home. It was 100 sq feet LESS than my house and was completed being built within 6 months of mine. That is a comp to our home if you were looking around. A big reason for the difference is the builder who just charges more to begin with. They also have a bit more upgraded features. For example they had granite in all the bathrooms as opposed to our home that had granite in the kitchen and in the master bathroom and then cultured marble in the rest of the bathrooms. The interesting bit though is that our home is energy star rated and that other home is not.

Location does play a role. The lots for sale that had the rock marker for what part of the neighborhood you were in were about $25,000 to begin with due to that. Homes along the main road in the neighborhood are also affected by price. Homes facing the elementary school also are affected. Even though it's close to take your children to school so you could walk them it's not as desirable because of the noise and traffic factor.

I have to say though if it sold for $10,000 UNDER listing then perhaps there is an issue with the house that the seller agreed to drop the price to account for that or they were just really motivated to sell at that exact time and the buyer wasn't willing to buy it for full asking at that time.

 

[supersnoop]

Sales prices are public record.

That depends on the state. Sales prices are not public record in Texas.

 

[tvguy]

That depends on the state. Sales prices are not public record in Texas.

My FIL lives outside Houston and all the information about his house is on Zillow. Zillow's website says it gets it's information from public records.

 

[supersnoop]

My FIL lives outside Houston and all the information about his house is on Zillow. Zillow's website says it gets it's information from public records.

Zillow is notoriously (and hilariously) inaccurate in Texas. They may get "information" from public records, but they don't get the sales price.

 

[tvguy]

Zillow is notoriously (and hilariously) inaccurate in Texas. They may get "information" from public records, but they don't get the sales price.

Here is an example. No idea if it is accurate, but it is there. Even has the property taxes back over the years
http://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sal...23,-93.807107,29.943927,-94.24656_rect/10_zm/

 

[supersnoop]

Here is an example. No idea if it is accurate, but it is there. Even has the property taxes back over the years
http://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sal...23,-93.807107,29.943927,-94.24656_rect/10_zm/

From http://www.zillow.com/wikipages/Home-Facts-Information/
"This is possibly because your house is in a "non-disclosure" state (Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming) where transactions are not publicly reported."

Tax assessed values and property tax assessments are public record, but sales prices are not.

The house you listed is currently for sale at $80k, with a "zestimate" of $118k.

 

[FINFAN]

well...life will go on, and I hope that the seller had no hardships occurring and just maybe wanted to selling process to end. (I kinda feel like a brat as this should have been my FIRST response instead of worrying about values) I don't know the family that lived there personally, hopefully they are doing well. I need to focus on the fact that homes sell quick around here and usually for a solid price. things will bounce back from this sale. Thanks all, for the posts and experiences.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

From http://www.zillow.com/wikipages/Home-Facts-Information/
"This is possibly because your house is in a "non-disclosure" state (Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming) where transactions are not publicly reported."

Tax assessed values and property tax assessments are public record, but sales prices are not.

The house you listed is currently for sale at $80k, with a "zestimate" of $118k.

Yeah that is true. But there is sorta a catch though.

I live in KS and so even though the sales price isn't published the appraised value for our brand new home completed in 2014 was listed as the sales price of our home (though rounded to even dollars so it would say $___,600 instead of $___,645 if that makes sense) for 2015's tax year. You would have to know however that that's what they did. It is common practice though to just list for the first full year of your appraised value for tax purposes what your sales prices is on a newly built home.

 

[daughtersrus]

well anything is possible...took about 3 months to sell tho and was in the MLS. I look up anything near us when I see the sign to get an idea on pricing. They did list maybe 20 less than homes further from the intersection, but then to accept 55 under that...I know there may be issues or whatever, but it just hurts at first glance. Hopefully whoever is brave enough to sell next starts the pricing back upward.

The upside is that you can use that sale as a comparable if it's similar to yours to appeal your tax assessment. I have appealed our assessment just about every year for the last 8 years. Every year the local assessor and county say Nope. Your house is worth more than the exact same model a block away because we are in different tax sections. When it gets to the state level ( 1 1/2 years later), the state agrees with me and lowers the assessment. The only catch is that you have to compare your home to other homes that have sold that are not foreclosures or short sales..

I agree with others that it could be that there was a reasons the sellers wanted out so quickly. Maybe a job transfer, death, divorce...

When we bought our house 24 years ago, we paid aboutb $25,000 less than all of the other models like ours. The seller had bought the house less than a year earlier. According to the realtor, they put more than 20% down. They accepted a transfer to IN and needed out quickly. They had to bring almost $10,000 to the closing to sell the house.
Our neighbors that were trying to sell were not happy with us for getting such a great deal. Of course, all of this was before the market crashes.

 

[NinaBella]

Zillow is notoriously (and hilariously) inaccurate in Texas. They may get "information" from public records, but they don't get the sales price.

Zillow is a bad source all together. My home was listed wrong on zillow for years. Finally, I just edited my own home details. It showed my home as a one story with less bedrooms, bathrooms, and square footage than it actually had. It is simple to claim the home as yours on zillow and edit the details just as easy as you can edit wiki pages. For this reason, I would call zillow as an unreliable source since the public can edit.

At work, I have to look up home information about a dozen times. I use http://publicrecords.netronline.com/ to look at county websites. We are not allowed to use Zillow at work. LOL.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Zillow is a bad source all together. My home was listed wrong on zillow for years. Finally, I just edited my own home details. It showed my home as a one story with less bedrooms, bathrooms, and square footage than it actually had. It is simple to claim the home as yours on zillow and edit the details just as easy as you can edit wiki pages. For this reason, I would call zillow as an unreliable source since the public can edit.

At work, I have to look up home information about a dozen times. I use http://publicrecords.netronline.com/ to look at county websites. We are not allowed to use Zillow at work. LOL.

Yeah they didn't like to use Zillow at my last job either (worked in the auto and home insurance industry). I would however use zillow to get a quick access point to the County's website because it if was linked to it many times it would go straight to the house in question. We also used Netronline as well. I found it quickest though for many many cases to just google the county in question by saying for example "____ county appraiser's office" or "___ county property/parcel lookup" or something to that extent.