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Home Value Estimate
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"Reviewing the selling price of local houses in the area that your desired home is located will give you a definite advantage."
Specifically, you want to look at total square footage, lot size, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, type of construction, garage space, amenities such as fireplaces, pool, deck, etc.
If you are looking to buy a tract home, this information will be easier to find because you can use the exact model price to comparison. Although some comparable sales information is difficult to find by the public, your real estate agent should be able to access this information easily through Multiple Listing Service (MLS) or public records.
Public Record When a house is purchased, the property deed is transferred from the seller to the buyer. This deed is then recorded at the local county recorder's office, which includes sales information as well as other property information as a way for the property tax to be assessed.
As long as there are no additions to the house, this data is public information and can be accessed via the Internet or at the courthouse. You will be able to find square footage, sales price, as well as number of rooms. If you run into a problem, your real estate agent can usually gain access by going through the insurance company. In this situation, the title company compiles the data from the county recorder's office, or they purchase the information from other companies.
Pending Transactions Since there is no record of the sales price until the house has actually sold, this makes getting accurate information a little tricky. Obviously getting your hands on information from a house sold one month ago opposed to six months ago is far more valuable. However, until the deed is recorded, the information is not there, nor is it available in the MLS.
The reason for this is that the seller is protected should the transaction not go through and the property would go back on the market. By knowing what the buyer accepted on the first accepted offer, new buyers would have a huge advantage the second time the house goes on the market. They would have the upper hand over the seller in knowing what the house sold for and what the buyer is likely to accept.
However, keep in mind, a real estate agent can usually obtain the price information on the sale that fell through by conferring with another agent, which is done as a professional courtesy. In addition, some real estate brokerage offices have this very information posted on a transaction board in their office.
The bottom line is that analyzing comparable information should be a huge part of your overall house buying process. Look for recent sales in the area you are interested, and determine if you have a motivated seller. If a seller has been transferred for a job, or if the house belonged to someone who just passed away, the seller may be willing to be more flexible on the price
Let us know what your looking for see how easy it is to own your piece of Jacksonville.
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