By Living Room Realty, May 10, 2023
My husband and I moved into our 1962 custom midcentury split-level house in late 2018. We are the second owners of what was considered a time capsule, but it had great bones and a fantastic layout. In the last 4+ years, we have spent updating and remodeling with custom work and many high-end finishes with the guidance of SBaird Designs.
I wanted to be mindful though on building as much equity as we could. My husband and I did as much manual labor and learned to strip wallpaper, painting walls and cabinets, rip up flooring, replace outlets and switches. We even saved a lot by doing the painting ourselves (only spent $2500 on paint and materials) and clearing a quarter acre of blackberries.
So when I go to Zillow and look up my address, I look at the Zestimate and just shake my head. Zillow uses an algorithm to come up with this number but it can not know or do what a professional realtor literal eyes do and see the details. This work is a lot about the details especially when you are in a competitive situation and want to make a strong offer.
So how much do you offer? Your realtor is trained to look at the details and run the comparisons. Sometimes there are not enough comparisons, especially on a custom home, which makes the task even harder. That matters when it comes to the appraisal because the appraiser has to come up with a property value in order to get your loan approved.
As new technology comes out, many buyers and sellers are wanting to cut out the real estate agent. But hold on, these new technologies only compliment our work but they can not replace the value of our skilled experience and expertise. Details matter and that’s why you need a skilled realtor to help guide you. That’s what we do; you make the decisions while we give you as much information to make an informed decision about one of your most expensive asset purchases.
