No jab intended. Truly. I’ve been appraising for 22 years and I’ve heard the “willing buyer/willing seller = sales contract = market value” from agents a lot more often than not. From 30-year pros as often as 12-month rookies, for that matter.
I’ve also had the experience of asking agents what comps they used to set their listing price, only to get the answer that they didn’t use comps, they just “felt” they could get that price. Again, more often than not. I don’t say that as a criticism of agents because first of all I recognize that is how a lot of agents, buyers and sellers do their valuations; and secondly because I really don’t much care what an agent thinks about value anyway. I only care if they can provide data that I should consider.
There are two reasons why I wouldn’t consider your larger pending as a direct comparable, and the size difference is actually the lesser of those reasons. That home is a mid-sized model in a subdivision of much larger homes than our subject is; our subject being the largest model in its neighborhood. That pending benefits by its association with those larger and more expensive homes, just as our subject’s value is affected by its neighboring properties of smaller size and lower prices.
That’s why, all other factors being equal, the one factor a good appraiser attempts to avoid having to deal with whenever possible is the effects of a different location.
Let’s not forget that your smaller pending, which is a bit more similar, was listed at $850-$875. As I noted before, that subdivision has historically sold a little higher than our subject has. Depending on where it closes, that sale also indicates to much less than a $900k indicator for our subject, too.
Anyways, I’m repeating myself now as I have nothing new to offer on the subject, so I should just cut this one loose. I’m not an realty agent, and I don’t set listing prices or market properties. I only stuck my 2 cents in because the question was one of value; and I offered my observations within the context of my perspective as an appraiser.
