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When a buyer sits down and takes a hard, long, objective view of the whole process, it can be downright confusing. There are literally hundreds of numbers, figures and estimates that come flying out of an average home sales contract and it can be downright disorienting trying to figure them all out.
Three of the numbers that you´ll need to know well are the list price, the sales price and the appraised value. They are all different and they are all extremely important. So, what do they all mean to you, the buyer, and how can you manipulate them to your advantage? Let´s take a closer look at these three numbers.
The list price for the home is the number you see published in the MLS system, the newspaper or on the Internet. Simply, it is the asking price.
The tough thing about list price is that you never know how "real" it is. One thing you have to remember is that every seller, no matter what, wants to make as much money from their home as possible. There are situations, however, when a home can be listed for less than it´s actually worth. In these cases, chances are the home has been on the market for a LONG time or the seller is super-motivated. But until you have a look at the home for yourself and have it professionally appraised, you won´t know for sure what the real value of the home is versus the appraised value. There are other factors that can come into play, as well. The seller might be aware that the local real estate market is heating up and suddenly their home is "fashionable." This can cause the list price to rise quite a bit, depending on the demand for homes in that area. The same can be said if the local real estate market is slumping. There will be less demand and a lot of homes available, so the list price is going to plummet. A smart buyer takes all these things into consideration when analyzing a seller´s list price.
The sales price of a home is simply what you, the buyer, offer to buy and the seller agrees to accept for the home. It is like the first serve of a tennis game. You hit the ball into their court and they can choose to ignore your offer and wait for a better one, hit the ball back into your court with a counteroffer or simply accept your offer and the home is yours. When you are deciding on a sales price, there are many different things you need to take into account. Just like market forces affected the list price, you should take the exact same things into account when coming up with a sales price. How hot is the local market? How many people have outstanding bids on the home? How desperate is the seller to get rid of the home fast? What was the appraised value of the home compared to the list price? Every good seller should ask themselves all of these questions when determining what a good sales price would be. Of course, what sales price is in my budget should be question number one.
Finally, the appraised value of the home is exactly that. The price the appraiser that you hired to look at the home gives it. Now, the appraiser is a trained individual and a third party who isn´t taking the buyer or the seller´s thoughts or feelings into account when they appraise the home. They are professionals, but they aren´t perfect. It is possible to get an appraisal that you think is completely off the mark and your sales price that you submit doesn´t have to be a carbon copy of the appraiser´s opinion. It´s simply one man´s (educated) opinion about the value of a home. It´s important but it´s not the final word.
Getting all the numbers that you come across during a home sale straight is next to impossible. Buying a home involves learning a LOT of jargon and technical terms on the way to buying that beautiful piece of Sarasota FL real estate. But before you close on that dream Sarasota home, make sure you understand all of the numbers flying about or you might end up with something you didn´t bargain for. GBrey | 
