Price vs Value: An Understanding of The Real Estate Market Everyone Should Know About

Anyone who is looking to buy a home or sell theirs should know about Price vs Value. There is what a home is priced at, and what a house is valued at, and those are two very different things. Anyone can list their home for any price they want, but they may not get it. Or they may get more that what they were asking.  I'm currently working with a client who had to come face to face with this last week, as many of my past clients have when they have been in multiple offers.  The agent working for the seller sent us back a counter offer that was $35,000 over the asking price.  My client couldn't wrap his head around going that far above the asking price, which I understand 100% what he was feeling.  And while I won't argue a with a client, because ultimately, every client has to do what they are comfortable with, I can at least write about to try to put perspective on it. 
For one reason or another, some homes can get multiple offers on it.  Maybe they priced it low, maybe there aren't a lot of homes out there to choose from, or perhaps everyone just really likes the front porch swing and wants to call this home.  Whatever the reason, going up against another offer can feel stressful.  Some people have felt that once their offer was accepted, that maybe they were paying too much...because their offer was the highest.  Other people have looked back and regretted not going higher on their offer when they didn't get them the home. But there is something that everyone should try to understand...there is an appraiser that will come by the house you have an offer on and tell you whether or not you are paying too much.  The appraiser's job is to tell you the Value of the home.  And just because the seller of the home is asking a certain amount for his place, that does not necessarily represent the Value. So if you find yourself up against multiple offers, and you choose to go forward and your offer is accepted, there is a portion of your contract that allows you to get an appraiser in the home to verify that you are indeed paying the value of the home at that time.  So yes, some of my client's have had to go over the asking price to get a home.  But then they got a home and they were happy to know that they paid for the value of the home, and not more.