A young couple is just starting the ordeal of buying their first home. They have no experience with this and have no one knowledgeable to advise them. They are told they should choose an experienced, reputable agent to assist them. Question: If your agent is paid a percentage of the price the house sells for, how would it be in their interest to help you make a good deal and not overpay for a property? This is a very silly question I am sure, and I feel dumb asking it, but it sounds counter intuitive to me.
Yes, they are paid on percentage, but if the house price is completely divorced from reality there is no way it will appraise for the sale price when you try to get a loan.
I assume you're financing it of course, since, as much as people around here malign debt, very few people can pay for a house with cash.
That being said, an appraisal is not a check against an overpriced home in and of itself. A home's price will only run afoul of an appraiser if it is completely off the charts. There is still plenty of "play" that will see an overpriced house get financing (especially since so many loans are sold off after the initial loan, the original lender doesn't care as long as they can find an idiot [investors or other banks] to buy it.
So, you can look at "comps" (comparables). So much data is available now for home prices, unlike decades past. Whether home prices are *systemically* inflated is another conversation entirely, but at least you can see if you have plenty of company in terms of a delusional house price :)
Redfin and Zillow are just two sites. There you can find comparable properties in a neighborhood (sq footage, number of BRs and baths, etc) and, unless a property is terribly unique, calibrate yourself as to sales price. They also have sales price history for a property as well as forecasts for the home price and neighborhood going about a year out, so you can get some sense of whether you'll at least be able to find a "bigger idiot" in the future.
I jest with all these barbs directed at home prices: it is silly to judge a home's sales price by say, construction cost plus land value etc. There's a market, and they cost what they cost. Some folks would have you fold your arms or build, only the latter of which is a good idea IMO (assuming *only* if you have a building trade under your belt).
Good luck, oh, and *pray*. Pray for a purchase to fall apart if it is not God's will. We saw 2 different purchases fall through a couple years ago and we were bummed and baffled, only to find out later we dodged bullets!!