4 things I personally look at before I show a house in person as a real estate agent….125

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Deerwood Realty and Friends Podcast

When a buyer calls me to go see a property, I usually don’t just jump in the car. I usually look at a few things before I make the trip to get a good idea about what I’m getting into.

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Thoughts:

1. The first thing I look at is the listing itself.
a. What’s the asking price? How is that relative to the area? For example, if I am looking at a home for sale in Sunset Hills, and I know the average price is around $400,000, and this house comes to market for 250…why is that? What is the reason for the pricing.
b. The pictures. How are they shot? Professional or iPhone? Is the house staged, or is there stuff everywhere? This usually gives me an idea about what the situation is. What is being hidden in the pictures? Is the house on a busy street? Next to a convenience store?
c. The square footage. In St. Louis, there is a stupid game being played with square footage. What a listing agent will do is go to a home, like in St. Louis Hills, and they will see that it has been listed as a 1,000 sq ft house for 50 years. Then they will go to the attic and either paint the floor and add a chair, or something like add the basement to the total square feet. Here’s the math. 250,000 at 1,000 square feet is 250/square ft. But when you list it for 250,000 at 2,000 square feet, its only 125 a square ft. That means that your house looks like a bargain relative to other houses. This is the simple equation…it’s much more tricky than that because you can raise the square footage and price asked. Now, how do they get away with this? Instead of using tax records, they use “appraisal” or “owner” as the source.
Another thing that is happening is that Zillow and other sources use the total living area as the square footage. So if your house has 1,000 sq ft on the first floor, and an 800sq ft basement, it shows up as 1800 sq ft, when nothing has actually changed with the house.
When I am looking at the listed square feet, I am just trying to figure out, when I go to this house, and it’s say 1,000 square ft…is it really, or is it much smaller or larger.
d. Is it in a flood zone?
e. What is the showing process? So, are we making it coming soon or active on Tuesday but not allowing showings until Friday? I just need to know so I can schedule it. Came across a house with no same day showings today…I don’t know what that means.
f. Is there an offer due date? What is the game being played? No escalation clauses, etc? This helps me understand the chances of my buyers offer being accepted….if the game is too rigged, we won’t even bother to play.

2. The second source I look at is Google Maps, specifically street view. I like to get a good sense of the area but literally walking the streets. Now, I know, the thought is that I know every area and every street as a real estate agent, but I don’t. It’s easier for me to understand an area if I walk it…even if I’ve been there a thousand times…and this prepares me when I physically go.

3. I then take a look at the Seller Disclosure. I’m looking for certain things on the disclosure.
a. Did the person filling out the disclosure ever live in the house
b. What is the length of ownership of the current seller? I tend to favor a longer period of ownership than say a year or a few months.
c. What is the sewer situation? Does the house have many backups, etc.
d. What is the basement situation? Does it leak during very heavy rains, or does it leak at all?
e. Age of the roof. Is the roof new or many years old indicating a replacement will soon be necessary.

4. I take a look at the tax records.
a. does everything I’ve seen so far line up with the tax records?
b. Does the owner name on the disclosure line up with the tax record?
c. What is the square footage indicated on the tax record?
d. What is the property history on the tax record?
e. The last purchase price was what? This helps me when looking at fix n flips. How much money was put into the home and how much profit is anticipated?

This is what I do…maybe you do something else. Tell me in the comment section below….thanks for watching!

Source: Me

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