A lot goes into pricing a house/property. The proof is in the pudding! In doing a recent Comparative Market Analysis (CMA); aka Brokers Price Opinion (BPO) on a property, I found the two strongest comparables are one three-bedroom house and one four-bedroom house, with a size difference of 164 square feet. But the three-bedroom home sold for $71k LESS than the four-bedroom home.
There are a lot of variables associated with bedroom count like is it on a septic system or public sewer, does the room have a window and a door, closets are not required to be a legal bedroom in Snohomish County, and more. But the county bases their tax value on square feet, not bedroom count. Who knew that already? Hopefully most of my real estate peers do.
Furthermore, if you ask Zillow, Redfin, the County, or the other automated valuation systems (aka a computer algorithm), based on their computer-generated knowledge of this house, is coming in the range but the suggested price falls between $55k – $66k short of what it should be.
There are no guarantees when pricing a house, the market is the true test of value. If there’s one thing I’d rather not do in this job, is to ask the seller to do a price reduction (or price improvement as some are calling it these days).
It makes total sense to hire a Real Estate Professional to be your advocate in buying or selling real estate; just as you would hire a professional Lawyer, Insurance Agent, CPA, Financial Planner, and more to help advocate for your best interest. After all, Real Estate is the largest investment most folks will ever make. Using someone you already know and trust is the icing on the cake.
Written 2/22/2025 by Teresa Willard, Realtor.