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Staff Reporter
Australian agents are not alone when it comes to dealing with vendors who value their property more than the market, with a US survey finding a big disparity between the two parties when it comes to establishing a home’s value.
In a survey of agents and homeowners released by HomeGain, a website that provides free home valuations online, 75 per cent of homeowners believed their homes were worth more than the recommended agent listing price.
In contrast, 63 per cent of homebuyers believed homes are overpriced.
The gap between what most sellers – 52 per cent of respondents – wanted for their property, and what the home was eventually listed for, was between five and 10 per cent lower than their expectation.
The survey also revealed that most sellers – 54 per cent of those interviewed – secured a sale price that was between five to 10 per cent less than what their properties were listed for.
The national survey, which obtained responses from more than 200 real estate agents and brokers and over 1,500 homeowners, also revealed increasing optimism about the US property market.
HomeGain said real estate professionals continued to be more optimistic about the direction of home values than homeowners, with 65 per cent expecting home values to increase in the next six months, up from 51 per cent last quarter and up from 15 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2011.
Thirty nine per cent of homeowners expect home values to increase in the next six months, up from 34 per cent last quarter.
This optimism increases when the time frame is pushed out to two years, with 79 per cent of real estate professionals and 62 per cent of homeowners expecting home values to increase by 2014.
“We are seeing a continued increase in optimism about the direction of home prices,” said Louis Cammarosano, general manager of HomeGain.
“Real estate agents expect the recent pick up in the real estate market to continue in the coming two years.”
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