Listing Homes in Sacramento is All About Appraised Value Right Now

Listing homes in Sacramento is about appraising at the sales price.

Many sellers are holding back listing homes in Sacramento right now for a huge variety of reasons, some valid and some not. For at least one seller, the sales price is an issue. That seller bought in 2005, so while she is not underwater, she won’t recoup her investment and can’t sell at the price she bought. This is a tough concept for some sellers to understand. They see sales prices going up and buyers lining up at open houses, and wonder why they can’t get their sales price.

The problem is we have not recovered, our economy has not bounced back to 2005 levels. We just aren’t there. We are barely covering the sales prices from 2008, and are not near the high price levels of 2005. We probably won’t be at that price point for a long time. You remember those times, right? It wasn’t that long ago that people could buy a house, move into it, decide the place doesn’t fit right anymore, sell it, make a bundle of money and go buy something else, all in the course of a summer.

I don’t think we even WANT to go back to those times. But try explaining to a seller that her house is not worth what she paid for it. Those are fighting’ words to some sellers. Because obviously we real estate agents are all in cahoots with the devil and don’t want our sellers to make any money . . . NOT.

Believe me, it’s a sad tale to tell but tell it we must. It’s reality. It’s what is happening. At least if a person is not underwater and has equity, that person should count her lucky stars.

On the other side of the situation, when listing homes in Sacramento, it makes sense to figure out how much a buyer will pay. The amount a buyer will pay might not be the appraised value and, in many instances lately, it is certainly not the appraised value. The appraised value is less than the sales price. Of course, if the offer is cash, we don’t have no stinkin’ appraisal to deal with.

I tell my sellers we need to position ourselves attractively in the market place, make sure we have the best spot, and we can’t be priced too low. Multiple offers will push up the price. I like to list a bit on the high side, just so buyers won’t go all that crazy, but they still do. We just need that one buyer who will pay top dollar and love the home.

I just wish more sellers were open to listing homes in Sacramento right now and not waiting for April or May. We have the buyers. We have the low interest rates. We have the ability to sell at top of market. Setting the sales price is the least of our worries. Getting the appraisal to come in at the sales price is the real challenge.

If you’re looking for a top Sacramento Realtor who is up to the challenge, call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. Put 40 years of experience to work for you. Listen to this, in all of Sacramento County, we have only 1,347 single family homes for sale, and 1,451 pending sales getting ready to close. In the hey day of 2005, we had more than 10,000.