For Sale By Owner Pricing

To price your for sale by owner home, you need to know the market. On a prior post, we discussed the county appraiser's records. These are important records because as transactions are closed, this data goes to the appraiser's office.

Your buyer will need a loan. This loan will require an independent appraiser. After the great mortgage meltdown, the appraiser's are under more strict guidelines. One of these guideline changes is that the mortgage broker or lender cannot pick the appraiser. The appraiser is chosen randomly. Again, the idea is to make the appraisal as objective as possible.

To keep the appraisal objective, and not biased by the appraiser, mortgage broker, or mortgage banker, the appraiser must use objective data to determine the market value of the property. The best data for that is recent sales. Recent Sales are available from the county offices, and also the local MLS. Both are available to the appraiser. Sold data on MLS is not available to to the general public. This is a big advantage to the appraiser in determining value as this information is brought back from closing by the listing agent and is updated within 24 hours of the closing. The appraisers therefore have access to data you will not, and therefore will have more up to date data than you would have.

So the most up to date data is available to appraisers and local real estate agents, but not to you. But by using the data from the county appraiser, for example, in Sarasota County, you will get good accurate information, and can use it in valuing your house.