It's funny how no matter what price range you're in, it's always a bit of a shock as to what you can get in a house.

I've been pretty surprised. The open houses I've looked have been an eye opener. Most of those homes I'd have pegged being overpriced by at least 10-15k. It is making me second guess moving. My current house is nicer and has a better layout than what I'm seeing at open houses.

You can roughly compare solds in your area to the current listings to give you an idea of what is selling.

How would I find the sold information? I don't have Redfin in my area, and realtor.com doesn't provide sold prices. Is there some other source?

CMarlin is right. You need to look at sold prices not asking prices. In my town, I have noticed that people are either ridiculously optimistic or their realtors aren't being straightforward with them a lot of times. Most homes here sell for considerably below asking. It's like that has become the new norm-- people would rather shoot for the stars than get realistic immediately.

I like to use realtor.com and then you can choose "recently sold" and do a search that way. You'll see what people are actually paying for homes.

Realtor.com doesn't provide sold prices in my area. When I do a search for recently sold it just lists a N/A rather than a price.

Really? Hmm that's weird...I have never had that happen. I don't know what to tell you..maybe some of the real estate agents on here have other ideas?

I did find some on zillow, but most don't provide sold prices. However, based on the small sample (perhaps 1 in 15 houses on zillow had a price) those prices ranged from $50 to $90 per sq ft. Most of the open houses I've gone to are on the higher end but are older houses. So I tend to believe they are overpriced.

Emma,

If there are any other homes that you know have sold but just don't know their price, you can check your local appraisal district's website and find out their sale price. It's a lot more tedious that way, but you could get the same information. Don't get caught up in property tax appraised values though-- they can be misleading.

Thanks. One common thing I've noticed with many of the open houses is that they all have very awkward floor plans that make the home seem very cramped.

I think the issue in my area is that there are houses like mine that are duplexes, very very small SFH (2/1's in pretty poor areas), or condos. The next step in prices are the ones I am looking in, there isn't really housing stock that is between what I have now and the next step. To be honest, based on what I've seen, I think I'm going to have to either get very lucky or increase my budget when I go to buy. Because I haven't seen much that I would make an offer on. My goal has always been to sell my current home first and then buy a new house, but based on what I've seen I might need to rethink that strategy. Or at least when I talk to a realtor about putting my current house on the market, I'll be more open to that idea now.

Our county's property appraiser website gives the sold prices. It usually takes a few weeks for the info to update.

zillow has a filter where you can look at "recent sales." It's accurate in my small midwest town. In my last city the assessor's website had sales history on each property's listing.

In my city, of the 4000+ homes that were listed as sold on zillow, perhaps 15% provide a price. So it's helpful, but not that helpful as if you look up a specific home that you know sold relatively recently, more times than not the sold price won't be available. Sadly, the county tax appraisers office only provides sold information to realtors (and they verify with some sort of realtor number).

Although, what I have found on zillow is that there are similar homes to the ones I've viewed that sold for anywhere from 20K to 50K less than what is being asked at the open houses I've been to. Interestingly, the duplex around the corner from me (luckily actually having a sold price on zillow) sold for 3K more than asking, but the SFH's in the area from the limited information I have access to seem to be selling for significantly less than asking.

Have you looked at comps to see what the your current house should bring? You mentioned having a price that yours should sell for. How did you derive that?

zillow.com can only display the data that is given to them. In my area, and I'm thinking all of SoCal, that is all transactions. I've been involved in selling other property and had some areas where basically NO sales were listed, only property for sale. I can see that this was being done to try to hide the crashing market. Recently as it has recovered a bit, some sales show on zillow but they are being reported by the selling agent. Interestingly only the sales that they want the public to see are being reported. Actual sales of property sold WAY under the asking prices are not being reported. I would say that you should be very suspicious if zillow is not showing the sales prices. They don't want you to know certain markets are failing. "They" means the ones that want you to keep buying.

I had two friends that sold in the same market, 31% & 40% off asking price. Neither one showing sales price. Mine sold at 29% off on a cheaper house. An identical unit to mine sold later at 2% below asking. It shows on Zillow.

When they are hiding the information, they have a reason!

Jrb451...there is a house down the street from me with my exact floor plan that is on the market for 115k (I'm not sure of the condition as no photos are included on the listing), another house on my street with the same floor plan sold for 106K in January. A house around the corner with a different layout and a little more square footage (and two full bathrooms) sold for 118k in June. If I were to put my house on the market today (after I've put in new carpet and some of the usual things that sellers need to do), I think a realistic sales price would be between 105k and 110k. I'm am hoping by next summer that a realistic price might get closer to 115k. Occasionally there are half duplexes that are pretty run down in the market for under 100k, but often those are HUD homes that need a total gut job.

i think I have a fairly realistic idea of what my home would sell for, although I would use a realtor to give me a better analysis (and I plan on using a realtor when I sell).

The open houses I've been to have been had sales prices between 185k and 220k. All, but one of those open houses, have smaller kitchens, smaller living rooms, smaller bedrooms (although more of them), and some of them don't have family rooms (I have one), and while most of them have new paint and new carpets and an occasional bathroom remodel (and they all have two full bathrooms), the kitchens are typically original to the home and there haven't been any significant upgrades to the homes.

i expect to pay significantly more for a better yard, a SFH, and an extra full bathroom, but anywhere for 70-100k seems excessive given the lack of features.

Greg, I just have to wonder if the lack of sales prices are because there is no where to scrap the information from. Realtors are the only people with access to sales prices. You can't even get them through the county assessors office. If the lack of sales price was limited to my area or even my city I could believe it was a failing market, but given how it's county wide in mid-sized Midwestern city (with a couple million people), I would be surprised if the entire region was failing.

Sales price is a public record in our area. Anyone can access it for any reason...it would be illegal for the county to only give this information to realtors. Why on earth would realtors be given information that wouldn't be available to any citizen? I would pursue that further with your public records office. Heck, our local newspaper lists pictures and sales prices of homes that have recently closed in the area!

It's possible I'm not looking in the correct place. You can make a request in writing to the assessors office (which I believe is required under the sunshine laws), but it's not accessible any place I can find online.

Information on sales is regional, I personally don't trust zillow. I find odd bits of information on it. I do use redfin in my area.

You have nothing to lose by contacting two or three Realtors to look at your home BEFORE you make improvements. See what they estimate your home will bring. Get the recently closed sales information from them on comps to your home and on homes you would consider buying.

Isn't part of the premium you'll have to pay moving from a duplex to a SFH because you're changing neighborhoods? If not, and you're comparing apples to apples on that, then that's the premium that buyers in your market value SFH over duplexes (or the discount applied to duplexes). It's an additional intangible beyond square footage and land value.

Most of what I would be doing wouldn't be improvements. It would be bringing my home up to a showable condition. And to be honest, I'm a little afraid of getting realtors in at this point. The last time I had my house on the market (10 years ago), I was given a long list of very expensive things that needed to be "fixed" from the same realtor who had helped me purchase the home in the three years prior. Items that would have racked up to probably 30K or so. It's one of the reasons I took it off the market back then.

I've done a few of the bigger ticket items suggested (new windows, new garage door, new roof), so I'm feeling better that there is less to pick over, but even so I'm a bit gun shy about the whole thing.

Weedyacrces...the SFH homes I have been to, have either been in my current neighborhood or an adjacent neighborhood (which isn't any better). And I definitely expect to pay a premium for a SFH in my own neighborhood. Just not nearly as much as what I have found. Although given what I've discovered on zillow (however sparse the information may be), and a conversation I had with one of the listing agents (from an open house I went to about a week ago) yesterday, I definitely believe most of those homes are overpriced.

But, if nothing else what I've seen confirms to me that I would be better off spending more and getting a much nicer house in a much nicer area. I was thinking if I stayed in my current area I could upgrade to a better house for another 50-70K, but that doesn't seem realistic. So looking at better areas where I'd spend 100-120k more seems like a better move.

Sorry about the bold type; don't know where that came from!

You don't need to do everything a broker suggests. Further, you may be planning to do things he or she doesn't think will profit you. At least you would get the closed sales information you need.

It's surprising to me that there is no ready source for this information. I can pull up recent sales in the whold Chicagoland area on Zillow. A couple of RE brokers on Maui constantly send out comp sheets, showing what's listed and what's pending or sold in our condo complex. I can see comps of overall sales, DOM, etc. on the Maui Board of Realtors website too.

Could you ask a local bank how to get this information?

I was surprised that there was such an absence of information. However, the discussion here encouraged me to reach out to a realtor to get some advice on my own home. She did share the comps of my house, which was pretty helpful (and encouraging as houses this summer sold in less than 30 days for an average of 98% of list price...I hope that trend continues). Now, I've seen comparables for my own home, I lean more towards the fact that perhaps it's a combination of not being as realistic as I need to be, along with seeing the duds on the market. The SFH open houses in my neighborhood that I attended had all been on the market for at least 80+ days. When the average DOM for SFH in my city is less than 60 days. So I think they are probably overpriced probably just not as much as I probably think that they are.

I'm reading the original post and I see someone who thinks everyone is overpriced. I look at that and wonder how she came to that conclusion. Are the houses she's looking at listed with realtors? If so, wouldn't someone think comps were done to arrive at the listing price? Wouldn't the realtor check the local MLS to see what sold and for how much before arriving at a price? Or have times changed so much that the owners now tell the agents what to list the house for?

When I read where people say a house is "overpriced" all I see is them saying they wouldn't pay that much, but somebody else may see it as a bargain.

I'll give you an example. About a half mile up our road is a very nice modular cape that's about 4 years old. It's nicely landscaped and has a 2 car garage and an enclosed breezeway from the house. It was listed at $299,900. My wife said "they're nuts to ask that much!" Well, I saw the realtor's ad in the local paper, and there it was. The photo and the caption: "Sold in seven days!"

Christopher_H -- Realtors sometimes take listings that are overpriced, hoping the seller will see reason when the offers don't approach that price. No Realtor is going to spend a lot on promoting an overpriced property, though.

As for your example Cape Cod house, there could be several factors. Maybe the seller got lucky, or the house sold for much less than the list price. Maybe the seller is helping with closing costs or financing. Maybe a Realtor took a reduced commission. Lots of possibilities -- including that your market is better than you thought! haha

Emma I definitely think you'll be better off going to a better location. Remember the first rule in RE is location. The second rule is location. And of course the third rule is also location. If you can afford the extra 100k, I say go for it because when you're ready to sell your next home, a better location will appreciate more.

I was on the fence about moving out of the area as I thought my money would go further in my current area. However, after what I've seen in my current neighborhood and what is out there in the better ares, I am definitely planning on moving to a better area. The prices difference between SFH's in my area and the better areas is only 20K. It seems penny wise and pound foolish to ignore that reality. Hopefully, the interest rates will stay low until I'm ready to sell/buy

Christopher owner's always tell (or agree with) the agent what to list for. The owner is the one who signs the listing agreement, which names all terms. The owner also agrees with each price reduction and selling price.

We bought our first house in 1975, so I'm familiar with how it works. Each time we listed a home we interviewed several realtors (people, not agencies) and chose the one who is the most successful. (We never went with part timers.) The successful realtors will price a home at what it should sell for, and we always discussed the comps with him/her.

Christoper...I think there are two types of people who sell. Those who interview multiple agents and/or rely on their realtor to provide a competitive price that will sell their house, and then there are those who hire a realtor with a certain price in mind for their home. I think we've all met someone who talks about not wanting to "give their house away" by pricing it appropriately/competitively.

Well I'm feeling like I was more on the money about some of the houses being overpriced. The two open houses in my neighbourhood that I visited and thought were overpriced have had price drops this week. They've both dropped by 10%. So while I've had some sticker shock, my instincts were completely off base.