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Competitive Market Analysis Can Help Set Home's Sale Price

Q. We plan to sell our home in a few months, but are receiving conflicting advice about how to set the asking price. I have talked with two real-estate agent friends and they have given me estimates that are $20,000 apart. My banker gave me the name of an appraiser, but she wants $375 to appraise my house. I called the tax assessor's office, but his assessed value is much lower than I know homes in my neighborhood have sold for recently. What is the best way to get an honest valuation of our home?

A. First, get your home into tiptop physical condition. Paint, clean and repair to make the entire property sparkle. Second, about a month before you are ready to put your home up for sale, invite at least three local realty agents to give you their listing presentations.

Each agent should prepare a written ``competitive market analysis.'' This form shows recent sales prices of nearby comparable homes as well as the asking prices of neighborhood homes now listed for sale (your competition). It also shows the agent's recommended listing price for your home.

After you have at least three of these written estimates of your home's market value, you should have a very good ideal of its probable sales price. However, if you still are not sure or your home is unique, you might wish to hire a professional appraiser. Spring is the best time of the year to sell your home, so you will be putting your home on the market at the right time.

Q. As a real-estate agent for more than 16 years I strongly disagree with your recent advice that home listings should always be submitted to the local multiple listing service (MLS). In our large firm we find about 50 percent of our home sales involve two agents within our company. As a result, we keep control of the transaction and maintain our high standards. We belong to the local MLS, but don't recommend putting our new listings into MLS until they are at least 30 days old or unless the seller insists. Our sales agents make more profits by selling company listings, so they are more enthusiastic about listings which are not in the MLS book.

A. From your viewpoint as a real-estate agent I fully agree it is to your advantage not to submit listings to the local MLS, so you can keep the entire sales commission within your firm.

But from the home seller's viewpoint, it is better to have listings placed in the local MLS, so all local member realty agents know the house is for sale. The sales commission is no higher for the seller when the MLS is used, but the market exposure is much wider, thus increasing the probability of a quick sale for top dollar.

Q. For six months in early 1990 we had our home listed for sale with a real-estate agent. The house didn't sell, so we took it off the market. But about three months later we received a phone call from a couple who had seen our house while it was listed. They asked if we still wanted to sell. We said we did. They came over, reinspected the house and we agreed on price and terms. After the sale closed, the real-estate agent somehow learned about the sale. She claims she is owed a sales commission, since she showed the house to the buyers. This is true. But she didn't obtain any purchase offer and we never even learned their names during the listing. How can a real-estate agent claim a sales commission after the listing has expired?

A. In most states ``carry-over'' or savings clauses in listing agreements allow the real-estate agent to earn a sales commission if the home seller and a buyer registered by the agent during the listing term get together after the listing expired to make a sale. These clauses prevent a seller from waiting until a listing expires to save the commission by selling to a buyer produced by the agent.

However, to be entitled to the sales commission the agent must have registered the prospect with the seller during the listing term. If your agent did not give you the prospect's name before the listing expired, the agent is not entitled to any commission. For further details, consult your attorney.

(Copyright 1991, Tribune Media Services Inc.)

Bob Bruss' column appears Sundays in the Home/Real Estate section of The Times. Letters and comments should be sent to Bob Bruss, Seattle Times Newsroom, P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111.