Antique Forest Real Estate Market | Buckingham Place Real Estate Market

Report Definitions

These subdivision update pages contain data an owner can use to estimate their house value. The data is presented in three tables … pending listings and sold listings.

The Pending table presents data for homes that just sold but have not closed yet.
The Sold table presents homes that have sold and closed over the past year. This table contains data most relevant to a calculation of home value since it contains data that has been recorded for the actual sold price instead of asking price.
Summary of home attributes and their affect on value:
1. Attributes like architecture, year built, number of bedrooms and baths, finished and non finished basement and size of garage are all self explanatory. The others may require further explanation.
2. Square Footage – We include home, basement, and total square footage. Home square footage is finished living space above ground. Basement square footage is included if the basement is finished. Total square footage is the sum of these two. According to appraisers and the city assessor, basement square footage is technically not included in the total square footage unless it is a walk out basement in which case it would be considered actual living space. A finished non-walkout adds value, a finished walkout adds lots more value. We include the total square footage calculation for your reference and because some agents report this number even when the basement is not a walkout.
3. Price per square foot – Calculation of price per square foot is for the home portion only unless the basement is a finished walkout. In this case the total square footage will be used in this calculation. The price used for active and pending calculations is the current list price. Price for sold is the net sold price.
4. Price – We report the original list price and the current list price for all homes. Listing price is the current listing price for active and pending homes. Listing price for sold is the list price upon final sale. We also report the original list price when the home was first listed for sale. This data along with the days on market can give you a feel for the price progression it took to finally achieve a sale.
5. Net price – This is the sold price minus seller concessions in the sale. Sold price is what is recorded in county records but net price is a truer indication of the actual sold price. Concessions are what the seller agrees to pay towards buyer’s closing costs, prepaid mortgage points, upgrades after closing, etc.
6. Ownership – This is reported as private ownership or bank owned. Private ownership indicates the house is being sold with the seller as the owner. In this case it could be a regular or short sale which may or may not affect value. Bank owned indicates a foreclosed property which usually has a negative effect on value.
7. Short Sale – This reports whether the sale was a short sale or not. Lately the fact that a sale is a short sale may not have a dramatic negative effect on value. This is because the seller is motivated to keep the house in good shape to get as high a price as possible thereby keeping the mortgage deficiency as low as possible. This is unlike a foreclosure where the owner many times leaves the property in less than sellable condition.
8. Finance type– How the buyer financed the house can have a significant effect on the sale price. Finance type can be cash, conventional, FHA, V/A, or Land Contract.
  1. Cash - While not always true, a cash sale will usually result in a lower price since the buyer is strong and the seller is willing to negotiate downward.
  2. Conventional - The most frequent financing is conventional where the buyer is obtaining standard financing from a lending institution. This can be thought of as the baseline for establishing comparative values.
  3. FHA and V/A - FHA and V/A are both government backed financing. FHA is for buyers who don’t have a large down payment and/or have lower income. In this case the seller usually contributes a significant amount of closing costs (concessions) to help the buyer get the loan. This used to always result in a higher sale price. Lately though the appraisal brings the price back down to a lower level before closing so the high price effect is minimized. FHA therefore usually has a negative effect on value. V/A is similar to FHA in terms of its effects on value.
  4. Land Contract - Land contract financing is where the seller finances the sale. This usually results in a higher sale price since the buyer is saving closing costs and if the buyer does not order an appraisal or does not care about appraised value the house can sell for higher than appraised value. Land contract financing is usually for buyers who can’t qualify for other financing. Perhaps because of credit, bankruptcy, etc. If the buyer can establish that he/she is a good risk and they put lots of money down and give the seller a good interest rate the many sellers are willing to take the risk. For taking on the risk and not being able to pull all their money out of the home the seller typically gets a substantially higher sale price.