Pricing homes with unique features

You know how to price the single-family, three-bedroom, two-bathroom home in your community.

But what about the home with a bowling alley in the basement? Melanie McLane will be offering tips for pricing the “oddball” homes, and how to find the right buyer, when she presents next month at Triple Play in Atlantic City.

“We all run into those houses that are different,” said McLane. “When listing an unusual property, you have to ask yourself ‘Who would buy a property like this?’ Someone who wants a traditional home will probably not want this property.”

McLane said the first thing to do is look at the basic elements of value, which are demand, utility, scarcity and transferability, also known as DUST. She also said it may be difficult to find comps, and it may require some digging.

“You may have to go further out in distance or further back in time to find adequate comps. Anytime you have an unusual type of property, you will have limited demand,” she said. “With most sellers, they make the huge mistake that cost equals value. Cost does not equal value. It never will. Even if it cost an owner a certain amount of money to customize something, it doesn’t mean market value.”

She suggested approaching the “oddball” homes in a different way. “If you’re an honest Realtor®, most of us will tell a seller that we can try to list at this price and see what happens.”

McLane will be presenting Oddballs: Pricing & Valuing Unusual Properties on Tuesday, Dec. 4 from 2 to 5 p.m. She will also present the 2018-2019 USPAP Update on Wednesday, Dec. 5 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.