Seattle Bubble Forum Archive

What is the best way to figure out fair market price of a house that I am renting? Can I pay for an appraisal? I find its ZEstimate to be suspiciously high when compared to other houses in the neighborhood. ZEstimates are unreliable. On top of that, my landlord is in the real-estate business. The home i rent has some upgrades, but it sure isn't the Taj Mahal.

I have asked the landlord for his expectations (~$625K), and we are off by about 75K - 100K. The landlord is thinking of selling this home as a pre-sale new house if we don't sign a lease. Wouldn't that reduce the price of current house (excluding land) to zero? Wouldn't a pre-sale fetch lower net for the landlord?

My rent is lower than principal+interest by ~$500 so I would rather extend the lease. I am bearish about the housing market for next 2 years. Interestingly, my landlord also would rather extend my lease. He must be bullish on the housing market.

Any suggestions are welcome.

I think most appraisers would not accept an assignment from someone who didn't have an ownership interest or was working for the owner.
However, you can either contact a real estate agent and ask them to do a comparative market analysis( which won't be as extensive as an appraisal), or sort through publicly available records to compare houses nearby that sold recently which are of similar vintage, style, age, and size, and maybe look at houses currently for sale meeting that criteria.
I wouldn't pay much attention to the zestimate. It might be accurate, and it might be off by 50%.
The market analysis is something that I, and all the other agents who participate on Seattle Bubble, do a lot, and can do quickly.
Feel free to send me an email, or contact another real estate agent is my suggestion.

An appraisal is not the recommended solution to this issue as what you really want to pay is no more than another buyer might be willing to pay. An Appraisal won't tell you that. The best way is to have an open offer with an escalation clause, as that would guarantee your not paying more than X over what another buyer is willing to pay. Basically "tenant has right of first refusal to purchase" and you may only have to match another offer. Of course you have to trust the owner not to conjure up some bogus offer. We use this method sometimes when a husband or wife wants to buy the house IF it is below X price. "husband has right of first refusal" on all offers. The last time I did that the offers well well in excess of what the husband was willing to pay, so it worked out.

You can probably higher a real estate appraiser HOWEVER you will not be able to use with a mortgage (if you're getting financing) as lenders will not be allowed to accept it due to regulations with HVCC.

Regardless of what another buyer is willing to pay for a home, unless they're paying cash, the appraised value IS important.