I recently came across an intriguing article by Washington's Kenneth Harney in my local newspaper, the Sarasota Herald Tribune. It addressed the question: Are some realty agents hyping the pricing information on closed sales reported to local multiple listing services? And if so, should you care?

Mr. Harney says YES YOU SHOULD especially after hearing the results of a first-of-its-kind study by Appraisers & Real Estate Experts. Transaction Closing Documents were compared to the MLS final prices with a result of 1 in 11 (8.75%) overstating the value, usually on average of 6.7% so not a HUGE amount, but it begins to skew the values that Appraisers use when preparing reports, AND Realtors use when building comps to competitively price your home for market!

This abstracted dollar number can give the Home Owner an exaggerated estimation of their home's worth causing it to be priced too high at the start of the listing, and creating dramatic price drops as the market determines the true value, thus disappointing the Seller tremendously. It also increases the risk that Lenders endure by artificially inflating values of homes, even slightly, because now they have less collateral to back the mortgage than they were initially led to believe.

The purpose of the Multiple Listing Service is to share property data among Member Realty Brokers, Appraisers, & other associated Professionals with the emphasis on "Data Integrity".

Some Agents tend to omit Seller Concessions: Credits for Repairs, Closing Costs, etc.,  in order to show a higher Sales Price to List Price Ratio, an effective Tool in their Listing Presentations. The MLS doesn't pick up on these omissions and has no way, currently, to audit transactions.

The Bottom Line? Ask YOUR Agent to thoroughly check ALL the numbers several times to insure that you are getting the VERY BEST DEAL before you put in an offer!

That's why using the Experts of the Extreme Home Selling Team is YOUR BEST BET!
We educate and advise our Buyers when the numbers DON'T MAKE SENSE.
We don't simply show properties.

We take care of our Clients!

ROBERT "CHIP" DEACON, Broker-Associate
941-584-8400, 9000
Jeff Kaplan, Customer Care Team
Shari Shepard, Team Admin
Laura Dobrin, Realtor - Buyer's Agent

   Shari Shepard
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