Turns out, The Value of your Stockton House May Really Depend on Who You Ask!
Between the real estate agents, appraisers and investors there are different ways to determine the value of a house in any part of any city. So answering the question… “Whats my House Worth in Stockton, Sacramento or Modesto is more often than not subjective. It has many moving parts, and if one detail or one house is left out of the equation, the numbers won’t always match up. That said, the data and the criteria for crunching that data vary widely when you look at the specific numbers. In fact, depending on the data source, the numbers can be off by 10’s of thousands of dollars and that is why so many real estate professions have criticized the estimates that Zillow and others post on their website(s).
The truth is that the real estate market has never been one size fits all and yet the Real Estate Industry has convinced the public at large and its representatives that we can determine the value of any house via the critical sales data found within the Multiple Listing Service Databases exclusively. That somehow if we analyze the sales of properties over a certain period of time generally comprising the past 3 months, for a specific geographic region (1/4 mile of the subject property) we can determine the value of any house regardless of size, configuration and condition..
Sometimes I think that the system of valuing houses is a little rigged by the the MLS especially when we realize that the sales numbers are commission based and higher valuations equal higher commissions. But that really isn’t my argument to the extent that it needs to be changed. It is just an argument that says the numbers are all data driven but they are tied to inflated numbers that involve financing. In reality a house is worth only as much as someone else will pay for it. It really doesn’t matter what you purchased your house for, how much you owe or how much the Bank is willing to finance. At the end of the day it is about just one thing… what someone is willing to pay in cash.
Whats My House Worth in Stockton?
My name is Peter Westbrook with Westbrook Real Estate Investments. I have been a real estate investor in Stockton, Sacramento and Modesto for over 10 years, buying and selling hundreds of houses and helping hundreds of families in the process. With that many transactions I have found that no matter what side of the table I am on, Buyer or Seller, the struggle over a home’s value is the primary hurdle that both the buyer and seller need to ultimately agree upon.
The symbolic sign in the front yard, the open houses, the parading of people through the home… it doesn’t matter in the long run unless at least three people agree. The Seller, the buyer and possibly the lenders appraiser. Three powerful components in 98% of all real estate transactions that need to come together, but make no mistake that the market is driven by the needs of the buyer, because without the buyer there would not be a no sale.
I see first hand how homeowners struggle with the tradeoffs of spending thousands of dollars to fix and update a house versus just selling it for cash to a cash home buyer in Stockton. It is a worthy conversation and some houses like the one in this video are the perfect argument for just selling to a Stockton Real Estate Investor.
More often than not I see homeowners that become consumed and driven by erroneous numbers trying to catch the top tier of the stockton real estate market. It’s not uncommon for homeowners to take the advice of real estate agents and general contractors and invest tens of thousands of dollars into the renovation of a house that cannot justify those types of numbers. Chasing the top of the market is risky business and should be left to the experts that have built businesses around such risk taking.
Homeowners should temper the advice they receive from real estate agents or General Contractors that are not also investing their own time and money in the projects that they are advising on. It is a conflict of interest because the General Contractor is going to be paid whether or not the house actually recoups those cost. Likewise, the real estate agent is thrilled every time you are willing to spend thousands on repairs and upgrades as they are not guaranteeing a sales price and let’s face it, the more money you spend, the larger the commission, no matter what the sales price and no matter what the return on investment. Either way they are not losing money nor risking anything.
I have seen first hand how both real estate agents and contractors have made more money on the sale of a house than what was left as homeowners equity. Overspending in common especially if you are chasing the top of market with a high sales price. My advice to you is to be careful, the market has a way of punishing greed and my warning comes with years of experience where houses sit unsold while the sellers holding cost continue to rise. I have seen first hand the diminishing returns of ill advised improvements without the possibility of recouping those cost.
My other advice is that you need to be realistic about the market and what your exit strategy should be. Pouring thousands of dollars into a house may not be the answer. The challenge for all of us is to find the balance. I know, because I am a real estate investor in Stockton, Sacramento and Modesto and I make a living determining the baseline values of houses everyday. I understand that I cannot make money if I am reckless in my approach. I also know that as much of the gamble is an educated guess, it is more a symbiotic science meets an art coupled with some real experience that really matters. We often times make mistakes and over improve a home and suffer financially because of it.
In the video attached, I walk through a house in Stockton. (By the way… the city is irrelevant). I talk about the house and why its value is challenged by a number of factors such as age, location, architecture, construction type, materials used, updates and upgrades that are needed and features offered in today’s new houses. By contrast it’s easy to see why some houses no matter what year they are built will hold value and others dont.
I am hopeful that my video will give you a glimpse at what I see and look for to make a purchase of a house knowing that it has a potential for profit. Please take that walk with me and see why I am one of the leading real estate investors in Stockton. I may have an answer to the question “Whats my house worth in Stockton?”
If you have a house that needs a lot of work, repairs, or updates and you dont have the time and money to finish what may be an impossible project, then I encourage you to call me. At least watch the video.
(209)481-7780
If you need to sell your house fast We Buy Houses in Stockton, Sacramento and Modesto and we pay cash.
Video Transcription
Peter Westbrook: Hello my name is Peter Westbrook with Westbrook Real Estate Investments, and today I’m doing a video on a house that I purchased, and really it goes right to the heart and soul of what is the value of the house? People see property values going up in neighborhoods around Stockton, as they should. But how do you get to that top of market?
I can tell you that houses like this have a real hard time even coming close to what top of market is, there are a couple of things on a house like this that was built in the ’50s, the first is a flat topped roof, no bank in the world is going to touch this house with as many modifications have been made to it, without it being to code. So that would mean somebody like me, or somebody who wants to buy it, would have to come in and actually strip out everything that was done that was not code, and get it back up to code.
They’d also need to put a conventional roof on this house, and that means that you need to put trusses or frame that, and the cost of that alone is 10 to 12 thousand dollars. Then you’d have to come in and put HVAC in the house, right now it’s got air conditioning units everywhere, and a central heating unit that’s sitting right in front of us here. You’d need to duct it and of course, with the style of roof that’s on it right now there’s no way to run ducting up top, because it’s flat top, and there’s no way to get it down below, because quite frankly, it’s a concrete sub-floor here. So the options are very limited when you’re looking at a house like this.
So, a lot of money needs to be put into a house like this, roughly $80 to $90 thousand dollars to even get it to come to a level where this house could be sold for top of market value in the area. I’m gonna walk through and show you as well the bathroom, although it’s a good size bathroom, there is only one. So to get top of the market value for a house like this, you’d almost need to put a secondary bathroom off of what, you would have to designate a master bedroom, and make it a two bath. And then you would have to come in and completely reconfigure and gut the kitchen, and you can see here, the kitchen is here, it’s quite small. There is a little dining room area right here, but you know the best use of this, and this is where the stove went, where that gas outlet is, the best use of this maybe to just tear out the wall and actually open up this house, so it can be used in a more functional way.
But again, you’re looking at a lot of money to do something like that. If you own a house that is in need of repair, hasn’t been updated in years, and you’re looking at what you might do, maybe you’re a landlord who is just tired of tenants like this owner was, maybe it’s time to give me a call and get an all cash offer for your house. My number is 209-481-7780. My website address is www.ibuyhousesstockton.com, in any case, I’d love to talk to you and thanks for watching.