Home

Search for homes

Cost to sell a home

Do open houses work?

Did your listing expire?

Communication is the key

Advertise online

Do you need a Realtor?

What you should know before hiring a Realtor

Help for out of state owners

Suggestions for selling your home

How much is your house worth?

List for free

How we market your home

Does your agent have a website?

We will sell your home

Are you ready to sell?

Selling your home

Is a short sale right for you?

How much is my home worth is the question real estate agents are most often asked. 

The majority of times the homeowner is seeking an opinion of value in preparation of putting their home on the market, other times it may be that they are considering refinancing or a home equity loan and are curious to how much equity they may have.

Whatever the reason, the local real estate agent is the best source to assist you in determining the fair market value of your home. With personal access to the local MLS systems (Multiple Listing Service), current data on homes sold is readily available to most real estate agents to help in forming an “opinion of value”.

Unlike an appraisal that may be requested by a lender, at a cost to the homeowner or potential purchaser, a real estate agents "opinion of value", or as some call it, "market analysis", is more often than not free to the inquiring consumer. 

The typical market analysis will contain comparable sales data (home approximately the size, style and proximity) from the neighborhood or area in which the subject home resides. The agent will look for the most recent sales. 

This is important; make sure any market analysis presented to you to help determine the value of your home contains “sold” data. What your neighbor’s home has been listed for means nothing. If there are no recent sales within your neighborhood, then the agent should gradually branch out from your area until they find comparable sales data.

Once the agent has found at least 3 comparable homes that have sold recently and match your homes style, age and size, the agent will compare apples to apples. Here is where the agent’s experience and knowledge is invaluable. 

What makes one home more valuable than another can be traced to condition, staging (decorating), concessions offered and many other details that requires a professional’s touch to discern. Online estimators are a neat little toy to play with, but to determine real value; you need the “human” touch.

A true professional will then present their findings to you with supporting documents to back up their opinion of value. Often they will offer a window of value that mirrors the seller’s time-frame. The fact is a home’s real value is determined by what a purchaser is willing to pay and a seller is willing to sell for. The variable is the time it will take to find the right buyer for the seller. Proper pricing will lessen the time it takes to accomplish this task.

Take a look at this sample comparison of sold listings within our office versus a leading online home value estimator.

407-304-0255