Agents are quick to offer a FREE market analysis (CMA) to homeowners thinking about selling. Remember you never get anything for FREE. Agents use the lure of a CMA to get a 'foot-in-the-door' and wrangle a listing from an unsuspecting homeowner. Did you know that real estate agents have no responsibility to accurately price property? In fact, if you examine the sequence of events in a real estate transaction a professional real estate appraiser is hired by the lender before a loan is approved on the property. Why does the lender go to the trouble and expense of a professional real estate appraisal? Because an agent's CMA is worthless to the lender because they know that CMA's are used as marketing tricks by real estate agents. A new study from the Department of Economics at The University of Chicago has proven that realtors routinely under-price their clients' property so that they can extract a quick commission by having the property sell as fast as possible. The cost of this under-selling behavior to the homeowner averaged 3.7% - which means that if the property sold for $300,000 vs. the $311,000 it was worth, the owner lost over $11,000 right off the bat only to be burned again for the $18,000 commission (6% of $300k). The unfortunate homeowner selling a $311,000 home through a realtor can expect to walk away with $272,000 vs. $311,000 had he properly priced the property at its true value and sold by owner. A $29,000 DIFFERENCE! Too bad for the person making the bad choice to sell through an agent. Don't use a market anaylsis to price your property - agent's don't charge for them because they are sales tools for the agents and could cost you tens of thousands of dollars (on top of an outrageous sales commission)! Do price your property using a Professional Real Estate appraisal. We can recommend honest, experienced and capable appraisers for you. Don't be penny-wise and pound-foolish.

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