Property Value Question

[aweilba]

So our neighbors are trying to sell their house right now, and they've listed it for $124,500.  We live in a townhouse subdivision, so they're attached to our house with one other unit on the opposite side of them; in other words, my neighbors are the middle unit.  Our other neighbors, the other end unit, sold their house last summer for $137,000.  

We bought our house three years ago for $130,000 and in December when we refinanced, it was appraised for $135,000.  Since then, we've added very nice wood laminate flooring on the entire first floor.  DH and I are worried that our neighbors listing their house so incredibly low is going to really hurt us when we try to sell our house in the next year or two.  Our neighbors are currently in the process of building a house, so they're trying to get out of theirs as quick as possible so they don't have to carry two mortgages.  I know that since we are an outside unit, our house is more valuable than an inside unit, but other than that our homes are identical in lay out.  Anybody know if the price they sell their home for is going to hurt us when we try to sell?  We have to get what we paid out of our house or we won't be able to sell it in one-two years.

[melodramatic26]

It probably will affect your pricing. It's going to be considered a comparable. So just like when you bought/buy a house and view the other comps in the area to determine the value, the selling price for that unit will be considered too.

This is why having a foreclosure in your neighborhood is bad. The selling price has a direct affect on the value of the other properties around it.

[new2this]

I don't know from personal experience but we just had a "market value analysis" and are in the process of an appraisal re-fi. They haven't looked at anything over a year old for a comp. I live in a very rural area so they've had to expand the area they're looking at comps in because they aren't considering older sales. I don't know why. So maybe, maybe not?

[ktzmoh]

I was thinking the same thing as new2this - I don't know what the banks do, but when we were buying, we didn't consider anything older than 6-8 months as a comparable sale in terms of assessing value.

[aweilba]

Yeah... we sort of figured it would screw us if we tried to sell when we wanted to, which was originally to try to list it next May... I guess we'll have to see when the time comes.  It just sucks because their house is now officially the cheapest listed in the neighborhood (there are several for sale), and it is right next to us.  Nobody else in the neighborhood is under $130,000.

[marclovesme]

When we had our appraisal, both purchase and refi, the appraiser threw out the high and the low comps, so maybe another small glimmer of hope?

Ditto on the comps having a "shelf life."

And, perhaps others in the neighborhood listed in the $130 range will sell at, close or over, so you won't have to worry when you want to sell.

Good luck!

[downtoearth]

I think in the grand scheme of things a range from $125k to $137k in the neighborhood won't hurt your list price too much. I assume you'd probably get a list price similar to the $130k you paid.

[new2this]

Our appraiser just came by. She said she doesn't like to consider comps more than 6ish months old. Since I live in a very rural area (rural = less houses = very few comps) she is using some that are a little older but she said she never uses comps over a year old in any situation. She also gives more weight to middle of the road comps. She doesn't really consider the foreclosure as lowering our value significantly (it sold for at least $50,000 less than expected at auction) or the super jazzed up overly nice house 2 doors down that sold for $40,000 more than expected.

[aweilba]

Thanks for the input.  DH thinks we should list it now and see if we can beat our neighbors.  Haha.  Honestly, I'd be fine getting out of this house now.  I don't know if we could or not, but I'd be down for it in all honesty.  When we went to buy our house, there was nothing in our area in our price range that wasn't a townhouse or condo.  Now, however, there are a TON of homes in our area listed in our price range that are detached homes.  Some, in fact, are less than what we paid for our home and they are nice houses built in the '90s that just need some cosmetic updates.  I don't know what we should do.  Meh.  

[aweilba]

Aug 8, 2013 12:01:46 GMT -5 new2this said:

Our appraiser just came by. She said she doesn't like to consider comps more than 6ish months old. Since I live in a very rural area (rural = less houses = very few comps) she is using some that are a little older but she said she never uses comps over a year old in any situation. She also gives more weight to middle of the road comps. She doesn't really consider the foreclosure as lowering our value significantly (it sold for at least $50,000 less than expected at auction) or the super jazzed up overly nice house 2 doors down that sold for $40,000 more than expected.

That's good to know.  Thanks!

[ktzmoh]

The other thing is that priced aggressively doesn't mean it sells for cheap. It might bring in a purchase price significantly higher than asking. We had two houses sell on our street and both went for 7 or 8% over asking.

[sunshine608]

Aug 8, 2013 12:19:42 GMT -5 ktzmoh said:

The other thing is that priced aggressively doesn't mean it sells for cheap. It might bring in a purchase price significantly higher than asking. We had two houses sell on our street and both went for 7 or 8% over asking.

This is happening in our area too. They could have priced it low to get interest but what matters is the final selling price. If its anything like ours, it will probably be much higher.

[auntie]

Selling price will impact comps to some degree.

In my development, the end unit townhouses are somewhat larger and have a more "single home" feel to them. My cousin's end unit TH has a beautiful foyer, private side entry, 2 car garage, a decent sized lot and slightly more SF than my single. Units like hers sell for $50+K more than those in the middle of the building. Realtors would single out end units when pricing another end unit.

[Bonita]

We just sold our house and were a bit concerned about how the other houses were going to affect our value. It turned out to be just fine...We lived in a neighborhood where there were tons of houses that were just like ours and lots of them were much lower than what we wanted to sell for, and there were numerous that were much more than what we were going to sell too (ours definitely wasn't as nice as the higher priced comps though).

The market has changed drastically since January is what we were told, and the comps that were used on our appraisal were only about 1-2 months old.

My guess is that your neighbors house may sell for more than what they listed, and I think that it won't affect yours quite as much as it could have a few years ago when the market was filled with only short sales.