Articles
The real estate experts seem to have a difference of opinion. The question is this: When you measure a room with a sloped ceiling, do you add for the width of an exterior wall (like you do in all other upper-level measurements taken from interior dimensions)? The...
Articles
Lenders are convinced that a statistically supported appraisal is a more reliable valuation. Wow! Does anyone that understands the home valuation process really think a “statically supported” appraisal makes for a better quality report? This is not that...
Articles
Home measurement and floor-plan companies are spreading like wildfire across the country. They are the way of the future in the real estate business and the MLS. The ads are enticing and explain how agents will sell homes faster and make more money by including these...
Articles
It depends… The square footage reported in closed MLS listings depends on so many different things. The information that brokers, appraisers, and many others rely on to determine home values, could be based on one of a dozen or more different methods. There are...
Articles
One we can slay. Appraisers from all across the country told us; “Agents don’t measure houses. They take the square footage info straight from the tax department. It’s just the way it’s done these days.” The square footage in tax records is notoriously inaccurate....
Articles
Several recent studies conclude that nearly 80% of consumers first turn to the internet for information on real estate. More alarming is the fact over 80% of the information consumers find on the internet is wrong! The marketing prowess of Google, Trulia, Zillow, and...
Articles
If we spent half as much energy focused on stabilizing home prices, as we do on “fixing” the appraisal industry or coming out with new low-cost valuation services, the real estate crisis would be over. Every week, another new company announces the latest and greatest...
Articles
Pricing a home by using a per-square-foot (psf) value is nothing more than two simple numbers; dividing the total sales price of the property by the total finished square feet of the home. Using the price-per-square-foot method of valuing a home can be risky when...
Articles
Who (or what) to Trust… Lenders and brokers using Automated Valuation Models (AVMs) and homeowners using “free online home values” to determine the value of a property are taking a huge risk and not getting the whole picture. Here’s what they...
