A few weeks ago I was walking around my neighborhood in the West End of Hartford and saw a couple moving into a house. I welcomed them to the block and during our conversation they mentioned that they bought the house in a private sale. This is not uncommon for the West End. People fall in love with the architecture of certain homes and tell the owners that when they’re ready to move to give them a call.
Well, this past week I was doing a CMA for someone in my neighborhood and it turns out that the private sale house that recently sold was a comparable home. So I pulled up the city assessor data to see if the sales price had been recorded yet. It had. And I basically fell off my chair when I saw it. The house closed at a price at least $100,000 LESS than what it would have sold at if it was a public sale, or at approximately 62% of its estimated market value. Ugh. This made me feel sick for the previous homeowner.
Now, I realize that there may be reasons for purposely selling your house below market value. Maybe the buyer is a relative. Maybe the seller is financially distressed and needs to unload the property as quickly as possible. Maybe the seller is filthy rich and just doesn’t care. I don’t believe any of these reasons were the case in this particular situation. I believe the seller just didn’t know the market value of their property.
So, if you are thinking about selling your home on your own, please at least call a Real Estate professional to get an estimate of your home’s value. It is always free and there is no obligation. We understand that some people sell houses on their own, just like some people prefer to fix their own cars rather than going to a mechanic. It’s the nature of the business. However, we would also like to see you get the most for your home, whether you’re going it alone, or using an agent. Because finding out after the fact that you sold your house at 62% of market value, without intending to, will never leave you with warm fuzzies in your belly.