Belt Auction

Did my real estate agent lie to me about the price?

My girlfriend's parents bought a townhouse in Bellevue, WA for $500,000 in August 2008. Out of curiosity, I looked up the price on Zillow.com and saw the house was estimated around $330,000. Is it possible that the broker cheated my girlfriend's parents just because they were new to the country? Or is this still within reasonable price range? Note: A recently remodeled unit that is similar in size next door is only selling for $420,000.

Public Comments

1. it seems obvious that you know nothing about real estate in America yourself. the agent's job is to get the highest price for the seller -- the seller pays the agents, not the buyer. thus, buyers have to look out for themselves.
2. No they paid the value in 2008, 10% of the homes have lost value in the last two years. Have you not read about the recession. An appraisal was done before the place was purchased.
3. Your parents just bought at the wrong tme.like many did. Mid 2008 prices started to go down due to the recession. Most did'nt see it comming.
4. NO more likely that Zillow is wrong. Most websites are.
5. Zillow is notoriously low in home values, so its not reliable. Also, real estate values have gone down significantly over the past 2 years. It is possible they paid $500,000 2 years ago and now the home is worth less. And there would be no way the realtor could cheat them because all homes purchased with a finance company require an appraisal, and the bank will not loan more than the appraised value. So if they actually paid $500,000 then the appraised value of the home must have been greater than or equal to that amount otherwise they would not have been able to secure financing.