Buyers are searching tax records for what Charleston home sellers paid to determine value
Actually, the price paid for a home does not necessarily always determine today's real market value ... but ...
the price paid and when it was purchased does matter often enough that potential buyers of Charleston homes for sale are using the tax records as one tool to see whether the listing price is reasonable or not.
A snapshot of the sales history of a property in the tax records (amount and buyer name erased).
I've seen a lot of homes offered for sale that were purchased at the height of the Charleston real estate market that are put on the market with no relationship to current market conditions. I don't necessarily want to make a blanket statement but I've seen more than a few homes that simply listed at 10% more than what was paid in the past several years so that the seller would break even on the transaction.
Guess what. Almost everyone knows that homes have not appreciated by 10% in the Charleston real estate market in the past few years. More likely, the value of homes in Charleston has probably declined by about that same percentage so if a seller takes that approach to setting a listing price, it's probably listed for 20% too high.
So if you haven't made significant improvements since you've purchased your home, it doesn't really matter to most buyers whether you want to break even. Buyers today are more astute with easier access to far more data than ever before and they want to buy what they perceive is an excellent value and in some cases, might even select a home that isn't their number one choice if they can get a better deal than having to deal with an unrealistic seller.