Oh yes, I completely agree! What we have been told we will be approved for and what we are willing to spend are two completely different things!

Sounds good. A pre-approval is always best so you know exactly what to look at. And may I suggest that you don't necessarily need to spend all that you are approved for. It's always nice to be able to afford pizza and a movie in addition to the house. :)

We just sold our home and are now in a short term lease while we look for another home. We don't have a buyers agent yet, we are getting all our paperwork submitted to our lender so we can be pre-approved before we start seriously looking.

Well, there are many factors that go in. And sometimes one of the factors is an unrealistic seller. Overall, homes are selling for about 94% of their FINAL asking price.

Are you currently working with a Buyer's Agent? If not, why not? May I offer my services?

Thanks Chris for your answer. Just by looking at the price tag of 260K for the home it is out of my price range and I wouldn't even look at it. I just happened upon it when searching for open houses this upcoming weekend and on a whim I checked out the county appraisal which IS in my price range. So I guess as a buyer this this just confuses me even more b/c the listing price scares me off but the county appraisal makes it look like a home I might be interested in.

The proper answers can vary wildly. JoCo, at least in my opinion, used to run about 6%-8% below what the home would actually sell for. Today, well, sometimes it's right around where the house sells. But here is the deal, the county appraisal isn't what the house is worth. What a house sells for is what the house is worth. Then THAT needs to be supported by an independant appraisal. Keeping in mind that independant appraisals are designed to show support or no support for a particular property, not to determine it's real value. Follow?