How to Assess Your Home’s Value

 

How do you assess the value of your home? There are several ways. Your best bet is always to consult with a professional. Knowing the fair market value of your home seems like something you would only need if you were ready to move, but this isn’t always true. If you stay on top of your home’s value, however, you’ll have one less concern in the event that you do need to move and sell your home. Knowing your home’s value might also play a role in deciding which repairs to your home are important, and how to prioritize them. Most of your options are independent, and can be found on the internet. In today’s digital age, you can find a fairly accurate valuation with tools from a number of different sites.

 

While you may love your home for all of the protection and memories over the years, another person might only see that you have an old kitchen. Don’t take it personally if your home isn’t valued at what you think that it should be. Instead, see it as an opportunity to improve your situation! Getting a good selling price for your home is a good reason to keep up with the amount that your home is worth, and help you nab a reliable local real estate agent.

 

What Affects My Home’s Value? 

 

You may be surprised to know that your home’s value isn’t influenced solely by the price that you paid for it. In fact, the fluctuation of the fair market value of your home is natural. The amount that your home is worth will rise and fall with the strength of the local market, and each local market contributes to the nation’s overall real estate market. In fact, the state of the national real estate market can have an effect on the value of your home.

 

What will more deeply and directly affect your home’s value, though, is your local market, be it your city, your county, or your parish. If you’re living in a congested urban area (like Los Angeles, San Francisco, or New York), housing will be in high demand, and the accompanying price will be high, too. This will even apply to older or distressed properties. It’s not uncommon for old, worn homes to be sold for one half-million dollars in a place like New York. However, half of a million dollars is a fraction of what you might pay for a new construction, or recently-renovated property.

 

The condition of your home, the prices of comparable, recently sold homes, and even your mortgage payment will be considered in assessing the value of your home. This is one of the many reasons that proper home maintenance is so important, too. Letting leaky pipes leak can create mold, and this will have to be reported to potential buyers when you’re ready to put your home on the market.

 

What Are the Independent Options?

 

While you don’t have to rush out to consult a professional before you’re ready to sell, you will have to be disciplined if you task yourself with trying to figure out how much your home is worth. The quickest and easiest way to start your research is with a simple Google search for home valuation tools. Redfin is one of the most popular online home valuation tools, and is generally considered to be the most accurate. Chase Bank, Zillow, RE/MAX, Realtor.com, and Trulia also offer this service. If using an online estimator isn’t your first choice, you can contact your local tax office for their opinion of the value of your home. If you’re still not satisfied, the Federal Housing Financing Agency (FHFA) has their own calculator. This method utilizes data gathered from the 1970s through today, and focuses on the changes in your home’s price over its lifetime. Be advised that, despite their convenience, none of these options are the best that you can do to properly assess your home’s value. Even Redfin, with all of its accuracy, will have some pitfalls. Even if you’re selling your home without the help of a real estate agent, don’t set your price based solely off of your online estimates.

 

Should I Ask a Professional About the Value of My Home?

 

Whether or not you’re ready to sell and start a new chapter elsewhere, knowing the value of your home is a great way to be proactive about your family’s future. You don’t want to leave your future to an online guessing tool. A real estate agent can run a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) for you. This report will focus on the selling prices of comparable homes in your area, and gives you a snapshot of the possibilities for your home’s selling price. You can use this to get a sense of your home’s fair market value, but this still won’t be enough for you to fully-understand the value of your home. Ultimately, what you want is an appraiser.

 

An appraiser is an individual who’s certified in the valuation of homes. An appraiser is your best bet to finding out the true value of your home, and understanding the strength of your local market, too. There will be a fee involved in having an appraiser to come to your home and complete their report. Even if you’re not moving, taking this step will keep you front-and-center in your decision-making when it comes to your home, and give you a solid base from which you can launch any idea of renovation, or even renting, that you may have.

 

There is nothing wrong with doing your own research before reaching out to an appraiser. You will find plenty of good information, in fact, by simply compiling a list of the selling prices of all of the recently-sold, comparable properties in your area. Though you’d need a professional to give you the closest estimate of your value of your home, remember that the monetary value of your home isn’t necessarily going to be the selling price of your home. You may be able to get more for your home, but you may have to accept less than the fair market value, especially if you’re selling in a hurry. Starting with a call to your local real estate agent can save you time, and raise your profit when you’re ready to sell.