Home Appraisals and How they Work
When you are refinancing your old mortgage, purchasing a home in Quincy or anywhere else with a mortgage, or even selling your home to someone who is not an all-cash buyer, home appraisal becomes one of the most crucial parts of such a transaction.
It doesn't matter who you are; owner, buyer, or seller, it is very important to understand how the process of appraisal operates and what methods the appraiser uses to come up with the value of the home.
What is a Home Appraisal?
A home appraisal can be defined as an unswayed approximation of the fair market or real value of what a house is worth. During the process of a aquiring a mortgage mortgage, all lenders are supposed to order an appraisal on the subject property. This is done to create an objective means of assessing the market value of a home and make sure that the amount of money that the borrower has requested is appropriate.
A house appraisal contains a number of things, but key in them are the latest sales information of other properties in the area that are similar, the property's location, the current state of the house, and other insights that affect the value of the property.
The Difference Between Home Appraisal and Home Inspection
Home inspections have been confused with home appraisals for a long time even though they aren't related, an appraiser...
Listing Your Home to SELL
You have decided to list your Boston home with an agent of your choosing, and they are recommending a “commission” fee of 6-7%. The “commission” is what REALTOR’s® consider the “Marketing Fee” to list the property. As the seller, you want to net as much as possible at closing, so the Marketing Fee is important for you to factor in. Keep in mind, you get what you pay for.
The Legality of Negotiating
There are several reasons why the Marketing Fee is negotiable. The most important reason, is this it is illegal for real estate brokerages to collude together and charge a "standard" commission rate. This is to protect the consumer.
Each Market is Different
Your REALTOR® will know the market standard. An important factor in listing a property is not to go below the Marketing Fee average for the area. Each area surrounding Boston will have some sort of an average. Those averages may differ if you are selling your home in Hingham, Cohasset or...
Zillow for Boston MA
How Accurate is Zillow for the Greater Boston Area
The internet has changed the way home buyers find homes for sale. On average, people buy or sell their real estate in Boston about every 8 years. The length of time between real estate transactions coupled with the rapid changes in online real estate creates a lot of misinformation on how real estate listings get displayed online. It's easy to understand how many people looking to see all of the homes for sale in Boston think they need to go to a 3rd party real estate website such as Zillow. Truth is, even by Zillow’s own statistics, there Zestimate is off by more that 5% more than 50% of the time in Suffolk County.
Zillow for Boston MA
Zillow has used their huge marketing budget to position themselves as the dominant authority in online real estate in the US and making moves to take over Canada, including Canada's luxury home market. Although Zillow comes up on page one of Google for the terms “Boston homes for sale” and “Boston real estate” Does that mean they are the best way to find all of the homes for sale in Boston MA?
- Does Zillow show all of the current Active and Sold listings in Boston MA?
- Are the Zestimates provided by Zillow on Boston properties accurate?
- Should you be using Zillow...
