Greetings everybody, I’m a first time poster, been reading for about a month or so. I am just getting into the real estate game. There are very helpful people on this forum, I have already learned so much from reading this forum, and hopefully with time I can answer the questions of others ;D
On to my question… What is the best way to get non-biased sold comps in my farm area? I do not have access to MLS myself. I do have a realtor that I’ve worked with in the past that I could ask for comps. How would he typically want to be compensated for something like this? Or is asking the seller’s agent for comps the better thing to do? It seems to me that the seller’s agent would have his or her own interests, and could provide biased comps in order to make the deal seem more attractive than it really is.
What records should I be asking for? Comps are my current stumbling block at the moment. I don’t recall a way to search for properties that have sold and then see how long they were on the market, and how much they sold for.
There are no sold property records at the courthouse in Texas at least. Back in the old days you could count the stamps on the deed to find out what a property sold for but not today, at least in Texas maybe in some other states. Texas is a non disclosure state meaning that you do not have to disclose what the property sold for ( except to IRS ).
I do not believe the sellers agent is going to be biased and give you some kind of false report on the value of homes sold thru the MLS. Talk about jail time and loss of license etc. If you are losing sleep over thinking this then you should get a buyers agent to help you find property to buy. They will do this as part of their hope to sell you property and earn a commission. It only takes a few minutes to pull MLS comps on the computer.
The next best idea if you have no access to Realtors sold data is to do a current market analysis. Drive the area and get address and names of sellers on FSBO’s and agents off the yard signs. Call them and compare what they are asking and even go look to compare the condition and size etc.
Ok. I know no one has responded to this post in a long time, but I know there are other basic sites to use for some comps, but where I live, nothing pulls up under sold homes on eppraisal.com, Zillow, cyberhomes.com, etc.
Is there a good (free) Deal Analyzer software that could get me a value of a property? Thanks in advance.