Check the Comparable Sales Before Buying a Home

Any agent who belongs to MLS has access to comparable sales.

Examining comparable sales is an absolute essential before listing a home, but many home buyers are unaware that they can ask their own agent to pull the comps before writing an offer. After all, how you can possibly make an intelligent purchase offer if you don't know anything about the homes under contract and the prices of recently sold homes? Without this information, you're shooting in the dark, plucking figures from thin air and hoping for the best.

A Sacramento home buyer told me that he would not pay X amount for a home he was interested in. He had based that decision on the list price without looking at the comps. He did not know that the price he was suggesting was the average value of a lot without the home . . . read more about comparable sales.

More Articles by Elizabeth Weintraub:

• Figuring Home Pricing
  
• Overpricing Homes
  
• Lowball Offers

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_{At the time of writing, Elizabeth Weintraub, DRE # 00697006, is a Broker-Associate at Lyon Real Estate in Sacramento, California.}