When a Home goes Searching for its Identity: Comparables

There are two kinds of situations that homeowners looking at Bainbridge Island comparables run into:

1.      THE SIMPLE COMPS: Your home is part of an area that’s more uniform than not, in a neighborhood where there are a sufficient number of similar houses to have produced several sales recently. Your street may not be part of a literal development with models that have near-duplicate floor plans—but the area is, in general, homogenous. When it comes to selling your Bainbridge Island home, you’re in luck!

2.         THE NOT-SO-SIMPLE COMPS:  AKA, the incomparable situation. Your home is one of a kind, almost totally unlike any other in the neighborhood (two bedrooms, six-and-a-half baths) or unlike any other in any neighborhood (who else has a swimming pool built into the attic?).  All right, maybe your house isn’t quite that weirdly incomparable, but it’s still the case that no similar home has sold within a 5-mile radius within the last year or two. When it comes to selling your home, you may still be in luck—but not because of ‘the comps’!

When your property falls into the first category, one whole part of your selling situation becomes a piece of cake because of the comparables. Puget Sound area comparables from previous sales make the ultimate, convincing case that your home has at least $X value, because the market says so. In writing. Real people have plunked down their hard-earned dollars as proof. Even better, real banks have backed them up with their also very real dollars. It’s all verifiable in the public records.

When your property falls into the second category, in terms of the comparables for our area, it really doesn’t matter if you have the most attractive house or the best bells and whistles and bathroom renovations that will take a buyer’s breath away. If no other home within a reasonable distance has sold with a reasonable period (say, six months) that are close to the same size as yours, or if none has anything like similar features, you and your Realtor® are going to be pretty much on your own even settling on a listing price. Here’s a few lesser known reasons why paying attention to comparables is important when selling your home.

·            Unique amenities won’t always guarantee a higher comparable value. If the amenities are unusual for our area, it might make it that much more difficult to find enough comparables in your area to come up with a listing price.

·            School districts factor heavily into value. You might have grumbled about paying school taxes if you aren’t sending your own children off to school, but the quality of the school district has a large influence on comparables.  

·            Scarcity of housing inventory in your neighborhood can be either an advantage or disadvantage. It’s a plus if the housing inventory is low due to high demand (there will be enough recent sales information to set an accurate listing price). It’s a negative if scarcity occurs because no one is buying nearby homes—and appraisers will find it more difficult to place a value on the property.

It’s my job to get your home the best offers in the shortest amount of time for either category of comparables. Give me a call—regardless of which one yours falls into, we’ll discuss how we can produce results that are truly incomparable!