Real Estate Myths Debunked

Real Estate Myths Debunked

After almost 23 years in the real estate business I have found there are still lots of misconceptions surrounding real estate. Here are my top 6 real estate myths:

1. If the house has been on the market for a while, the seller will negotiate price. There are many reasons a house may have been on the market for awhile. Maybe they had an offer that fell through because the buyer couldn’t qualify, possibly the house was listed at a higher price initially and after several days on the market the sellers reduced their price, or maybe the seller had an emergency and the house couldn’t be shown for several days. Just because a home has been on the market for more than the average number of days, does not mean the seller will negotiate their listed price.

2. If I make an offer, the seller can’t sell to anyone else while I am negotiating with him and/or the seller must address my offer first if I was the first one to submit an offer. Neither of these is true. Up until the buyer and the seller have come to an agreement (fully accepted offer), the seller can choose to accept a different offer and stop negotiating with you. Additionally, if more than one offer is presented to the seller, the seller can choose to accept either offer without notifying both buyers that more than one offer was received. The thing to remember is that all offers must be presented to the seller regardless of whether the seller is currently negotiating an offer or not. Then it’s the seller’s decision as to how he would like to proceed and negotiate with the buyers.

3. A full price offer can’t be rejected by the seller. Yes, a seller can reject a full price offer. There are several other terms to an offer other than just price. The seller does not have to accept any offer, even full price offers.

4. Discount Brokers or FSBO save sellers money. Not true according to The National Association of Realtor Statistics (NAR). NAR indicates that sellers end up with a much higher sales price when using a full service Realtor, up to 10% more on average.

5. I'll save money if I don't use a Buyer Representative (sometimes called a buyer specialist).
In my opinion you will save money and lots of heartache if you use a Realtor to represent you. I have seen some real horror stories where buyers purchased a home without representation and ended up with problems (encroachments, set back violations, inspections that were never completed, lack of sex offender notice, etc.) that could have been resolved prior to the purchase if a professional had been helping them from the beginning. My husband and I bought a condo in Girdwood about 7 years ago and we hired a Realtor to represent us instead of trying to represent ourselves in a market where we were not familiar. A buyer’s representative can show you ANY home regardless of who has it listed.

6. Assessed Value is Market Value. Unfortunately, this is not true either. Assessed values rarely accurately depict the actual market. This can happen for many reasons. The article that I wrote last month goes over several of these reasons. That article is posted on my blog Click Here. If you want to know what the market value is of your home, ask your Realtor for ALL comparable pending sales and solds in your area. Pending and sold data is the best indication of value. If you would like more information on the value of your property, contact me at 907-373-3575 or email me at Kristan@KristanCole.com