Sherlock Holmes has some competition. Buyers and sellers alike are making use of the Internet to investigate the backgrounds of the people buying and selling homes.
This is replacing some of the antiquated reasons for paying more or, in some cases, less for houses, as well as listing for more money.
In olden times, sellers often priced their homes based on their debt.
If they owed $150,000 on the house and had $25,000 in student debt and perhaps another $15,000 in credit card debt and needed $25,000 for the down payment on the new home, another $5,000 for the taxes, and $12,000 for furniture, somewhere in the neighborhood of $15,000 for closing cost and commissions, then the house they are selling must be worth $247,000.
It mattered not that the houses on either side were identical and sold for $195,000.
Today, social media and the lifestyles of the buyers are often monitored.
A quick check of a Facebook page may reveal that a family has recently vacationed abroad, has a child graduating from law school and/or recently went to work in a high paying position at a large international firm.
The sleuths maintain a person in such a position should be able to:
1. Pay more for the house if that family is buying
2. Take less for the home if that family is selling.
Elementary, my dear buyer or seller.
Of course, with the cash flow burden of college eased and the additional revenue from the new job added, the family is experiencing a gigantic windfall.
Consequently, the value of the house they are buying or selling needs to be adjusted to fit their new financial situation.
The Internet has saved some of yesteryear’s best detectives trips to the office of the register of deeds in order to learn three very, very important factors in determining the values of homes:
-- What the owner paid for the property
-- The amount the person owes on the home
-- And the most accurate means of determining value – the assessed value Metro has placed upon the home.
In fact, Nashville is now one of the most complex markets in the country as far as pricing homes, with the voracious appetite of buyers driving prices skyward.
Yet, it is possible to price a home too high and, for whatever reason, perhaps Southern hospitality, the lowball offers – in this case, accurate offers – do not materialize.
One trend has followed the generations and ups and downs in the market, and that is if a home is priced too high in the beginning, it will hurt the eventual sale price.
The old homeowner adage – “You can always come down, but you cannot go up” – simply does not play, and actually never has.
There is irrefutable evidence that pricing a home too low in this market will result in a home selling for more money than pricing a property too high. The bidding wars have proven that to be the case.
List low, sell high. List high, sell low. That’s it in a nutshell. Ask Lieutenant Columbo if you don’t believe me.
Sale of the Week
Everyone who has watched television or driven down White Bridge Road knows where Sprintz Furniture is located. The Sprintz family has made a point of alerting all Nashvillians of their whereabouts for years and generations.
Now another familiar Nashville character, Grant Hammond of Metropolitan Brokers, has given the community another reason to wander into the area with his smart homes that hit all of the hot buttons, along with every green button imaginable.
With 1,871 square feet and priced at $422,695, this smart home has so many green features that NES will be sending them a check every month.
Along with the tankless water heater, an appliance that heats cold water and makes it hot, so it’s not a hot water heater, the home has Energy Star windows, low VOC paints and a programmable thermostat.
In describing the décor, Hammond gives a geography lecture as his modern row house has California contemporary interiors and a Bostonian rooftop terrace. Located at 200 D Oceola Avenue, the structure is conveniently located near Spritz furniture so that all of the buyer’s furniture needs may be met.
The hip and cool Laurie Sheinkopf of Realty Trust Residential represented the buyer.
Richard Courtney is a real estate broker with Christianson, Patterson, Courtney, and Associates can be reached at [email protected].