Anonymous wrote:How are these reports run? Can they omit houses? Take out ones they show you will be paying too much for the house your looking at?

I'm sure they have to select houses to show you -- that's the point. But I detect some suggestion that they would engage in subterfuge in doing so -- like they're trying to pool the wool over a client's eyes for some reason. And I'm not sure why you think that -- it's not even logical given the free availability of information these days. I mean, people challenge actual appraisals all the time by saying an appraiser included a house that's not really a comp because it has less bedrooms or square footage etc. and here is an alternative that wasn't included. So, there's really not much point in trying to deliberately deceive with a comp report -- why do you think someone would do that? It doesn't track.

Anonymous wrote:I find it * VERY interesting* some sales literally a few homes down on the same block that just sold are omitted from a report I got. (The comps that show the house I was looking at was very overpriced.) Now I don't trust the realtor at all.

Why would they "accidentally" have been omitted?

Anyone?

Did you ask? "Hey, I noticed this house with the same bedrooms/sq footage just sold on the same block - any reason you don't consider a comp?"

Yes they do. We had to fight to get our home appraised because they were picking and choosing which homes they wanted to use. There were many exact models of our home with comparable upgrades and lot sizes. But they were trying to use homes that were far away and didn’t even have the same number of bedrooms and bathrooms.

I find it * VERY interesting* some sales literally a few homes down on the same block that just sold are omitted from a report I got. (The comps that show the house I was looking at was very overpriced.) Now I don't trust the realtor at all.

Why would they "accidentally" have been omitted?

Anyone?

Realtos use MRIS

Anonymous wrote:How are these reports run? Can they omit houses? Take out ones they show you will be paying too much for the house your looking at?

All the time.

You can use the filter tabs in Zillow to narrow down the sold houses in a neighborhood/area, and then go to the "more" tab and scroll to the bottom where you can put in houses "sold in past XX days" (plug in 90 days or whatever). Often, you can still see photos of the houses so you know whether they were updated or not so you can further determine whether it's a good comp for your house.

Can they? Of course yes. Absolutely yes.
Do they? Yes. Not all but enough.

You need to retain a real estate attorney. Because you asked that question.

It costs nothing to retain legal. You don't need legal, until you need legal; and when you need it, you'll be grateful you have it.

Of course realtors manipulate comps. There are all sorts of shady practices. That’s why this big settlement is taking place.

If they are soliciting your home to sell it, they will generally pick the best comps to come up with a likely market price. Then, based on your strategy and needs, they will recommend updates and list price startegy.

If they are the listing agent and you are an unrepresented buyer, they will only give you comparable sales/listings if it benefits the seller.

You don’t want it to “go back far.” They should use recent sales for comps.

What website do you use to look at comps? Realtor.com does not go back very far at all!

Yes, they select the homes they want to use. They could be accurate comps or really off for location, size, condition, etc.

It's best if you look at past sales in the area and determine comps yourself. Talk to 3-4 realtors, but become as educated as you can by looking at the data yourself. It's a huge investment to buy or sell. Spend the hour looking at recent past sales.

Usually they will print out the housing that sold in the target neighborhood the previous three months to show comp.report.
If you are the seller they could pick the highest prices from the list to make it more optimistic.
So they could within some limitation.

How are these reports run? Can they omit houses? Take out ones they show you will be paying too much for the house your looking at?