Zillow can be pretty hit or miss. Also, while everything you describe sounds nice, I'm not sure how well it translates into added value.

That said, it sounds to me like you and this agent aren't working well together. Or you don't trust him, or there's some other reason that his logic behind the suggested listing price isn't working for you.

I mean, why does he think you should list low and why does he think the 2BR/2BA are comparable? He should be able to justify his reasoning.

Is he only showing your comps for 2bed/2 bath units because that's all that has actually sold lately?

If you are concerned, you should probably get a market analysis from a couple more agents.

Zillow will give you recent sales prices. On the search page, uncheck "For Sale" and check "Recently sold." Fill in the number of beds and baths you want, and use townhouse as a keyword. Or use the map, if you know the area really well. Zoom way in and most places have an icon -- the yellow ones indicate they have sales data.

Thanks @turtleshope--I did find that, but I don't know how recent they are. According to Zillow, comparable units in our neighborhood have sold between $129,000 and $131,000...but I know for a fact that the house across the street is 3BR/3BA and was purchased a few months ago, and it's still not showing up on Zillow.

That was the only 3BR/3BA that the agent showed us, but I actually walked through it when it was up for sale and it was a foreclosure in extremely poor condition.

Can I ask other realtors to do a market analysis for me without committing to listing the house through them?

I find that in our area at least, zillow lags by months from what actual recent sales numbers are. I do a lot better using the county property tax appraiser's website, although it's more work because nobody is making a list for me.

If you want to do it the zillow way, trulia is usually marginally faster in getting sales numbers posted, IME.

You can also check John L Scott's site, or other realtor sites and check "sold" rather than for sale. Not sure if John L Scott is in your area, but that has been a huge site help for me while we've been appraising.

And, yes, you can ask for market analyses from any number of realtors; though after you hear the same thing from a few, it is probably them, and not you, who are correct... But, in our area, you can ask for market analyses without signing a contract.

You can also search for "recently sold" homes on Realtor.com. Next to the "Homes for Sale" there is a drop down menu that lets you search for sold homes.

You should always interview more than one agent and get more than one market analysis.

Thank you terriks! I didn't know about that option on Realtor.com. It looks like my agent's suggestions aren't that off-base. I was just caught off guard when he showed up with 9 print-outs of 2BR houses and 1 print-out of a 3BR house. I don't have realistic fantasies about our house being worth more than others in the neighborhood, but I do think it's on the high end of comparables.

3BR townhouses in my area are selling for $120,000 - $138,000. I think we can get away with listing at $139,900 and I think it's realistic to hope for $130,000-135,000.

We went thru the exact samething you are going thru now last year. We had 3BR/2 1/2BA/2 car garage when most of the townhomes in our subdivision were only 2BR. Although no 3BR townhomes had sold in last 2 to 3years we felt pretty confident we would be able to sell fairly quickly. Our townhome was on the market from July 2011 to finally receiving a contract in Mar and actually closing the end of April 2012. We ended up dropping our price by about 10% but to be honest the foreclosures are what killed our comps in the area and the foreclosures were all on 2BR. Zillow unfortunatley wasnt acurate/up to date enough for us in our area so we had our realtor pulls comps from as far back as she could go just to get some idea of what a 3br would sell for.

I think your listing price would all depend on how much time you have to sell and how badly you want to get out. We had a contract contingent on sell our home on a new construction and in now way wanted any part of two house notes. Unfortunately in our area townhomes are on the bottom of the list of homes people desire as far as buyers were concerned just because with market and foreclosures a buyer could get a small detached house for roughly the same price as our townhome. We did run into this case many times with people who were looking at our home. All it takes is one buyer for your property to sell and we thank God we were able to sell. Just weigh all your options and price accordingly.

Good luck!

Here is a link that might be useful: Our home sell/build blog

"According to Zillow, comparable units in our neighborhood have sold between $129,000 and $131,000. "

Zillow is not a very reliable source for pricing data.

All it can go by is distance between properties (as opposed to actual neighborhood).

I think your listing price would all depend on how much time you have to sell and how badly you want to get out.

Statistics have shown that people who overprice their homes usually take longer to sell and end up with a lower price than if they had been competitively priced to begin with.