You bought the only house in the neighborhood that doesn’t back to green space?  Did you get a good deal?

You bought the only house in the neighborhood that doesn’t look like the others?  Did you get a good deal?

You bought the smallest home, the largest home, the one with the strange floor plan, the only 3 bedroom home in a neighborhood full of 4 bedroom homes, the one with a one car garage when every other house has a two car garage, the one with the really steep driveway, the only one that doesn’t have a flat backyard.

Did you get a good deal because you paid less than what the other houses in the neighborhood are worth?

Odds are you didn’t.

One of the toughest things to explain to buyers is the difference between actually getting a good deal and the perception of getting a good deal.  Often the odd ball house will appraise for more than it is worth because appraised value is different than market value.  Market value is what YOU or any buyer will pay for it.  Appraised value is what somebody who isn’t going to buy it thinks it is worth based on a formula of assigned values.

It is easy to think you got a good deal because your sale price was lower than the rest of the neighborhood, but value is so much more than price per square foot.  You often don’t discover you did not get a good deal until many years later when you want to sell.  It is only then when you can judge if you really bought it right.

When I buy a house, or am evaluating one for a client, I first determine what is the norm for the neighborhood.  You want a house to fit in.  You don’t want anything drastically different unless it is something like having more bathrooms than the norm, more garage space than the norm, a bigger or better lot than the norm.  Those are good differences because they are better than the norm.

While I am on this subject, I’ll add that having one big positive does not make up for one big negative.  If you have the biggest, nicest lot in the neighborhood but also have the steepest driveway, most buyer’s walk away thinking “If only the house didn’t have that steep driveway, it would be perfect!”

So when you are out house hunting, look around.  Learn the neighborhood.  Find out what the typical house is like.  Then compare it to the one you are interested in buying.   Or, make it easy on yourself and call somebody who knows that stuff already.