Often home buyers want to know how much the current owners of a home paid for it and how much they owe on it. That kind of information is easy to find in public records. Sometimes I have to remind both buyers and sellers that the amount paid for a home has no impact on the current value of the home.
If the homeowner bought the home a long time ago or got it for a song buyers think they should be able to buy the home for less. I have even heard homebuyers say that a seller is making too much money. You don’t know how much money a seller is making on a home sale and even if you did the information does not change the value of the house.
Knowing how much a homeowner still owes on a home might be useful but lets never assume that a seller won’t bring money to the closing if they need to sell the home and the home is still worth the same amount if the current owner owns it free and clear as it would be worth if the sellers till owed 10% more on the home than it’s current value.
I know this all sounds complicated but it is usually best to do some comparative shopping when looking for a home and to ask an expert . . like me for instance to determine how much the home might be worth today and how much to offer for it.
Home sellers need to do some number crunching before they put their home on the market. They at least need to know how much they owe on it and if the home is worth less than that amount they either need to hang onto it until they have more equity as many homeowners do or save up some money to payoff the mortgages if the resale value is less than what is owed.
