Info on obtaining an idea of what you can sell your home for...and how much $ you will net.
If you're planning to sell a property, the first thing most people want to know is what's my home worth? Or more importantly how much will I net after all selling expense and liens are paid. As a Realtor®, I am uniquely positioned to help answer BOTH of those questions.
If you just need a "ballpark" answer on your home's value - home value estimator tools are your friends
A quick online search on how to determine your home's value will give you a list of automated valuation model (AVM) tools, such as Zillow, Redfin, Realtor.com and many more. AVM tools use public records, such as deeds of ownership, property transfers, and tax assessments, as well as some mathematical modeling, to try and predict the value of your home. So, the recent listing prices and sales in your area will have a significant impact on your home's market value. What they don’t do is factor in the condition of homes, amenities (such as water views, pools, etc.) or upgrades.
To make the point, there is a house in Margate, Florida that was heavily damaged throughout by fire, smoke and water. Zillow’s automated valuation tool doesn’t factor in the damage in it’s valuation and shows the home’s value is up to $420,000. A 56 year old ranch home that needs gutted and rehabbed…maybe more.
According to David Rasmussen, the senior vice president of operations at Veros Real Estate Solutions, most AVMs on real estate websites are generally for lead generation and marketing purposes. They will return a value for just about any property even when there is limited data. In doing so, the accuracy of the result is very limited. The challenge is that a artificial intelligence tools cannot tell if your home and the one that sold in a mile radius is similar. It can match square footage, age, even declared architecture, but it can't see the condition or other factors. As a result, even the most popular real estate site has a disclaimer about how inaccurate it is.
Get a professional comparative market analysis (CMA) from a real estate agent
A CMA (Comparative Market Analysis) is used to examine the prices of similar properties that have been recently sold within the same area. Asking me for a CMA will give you a really good idea about your home's fair market value. Real estate agents perform a comparative market analysis to match your home to comparable properties. This helps create a statistical breakdown of what your property may be worth in comparison to nearby properties with similar or matching features. This will help you determine the price to list when selling or the price to offer when buying a home. I also will prepare what I call a “Seller’s Net” Calculation. This will show you how much $ you will net if your home sells for estimated market value price.
Note: There may be some cases where I recommend that you pay for a professional appraisal. This may occur due to the unique nature of your home or property.
If you are serious about selling your home, don't rely of guesstimates of it's value.
Pricing your home is too important to base on quick online tools that are more designed for marketing purposes and getting your contact information than accuracy.
That's why we offer a no cost, no obligation Comparative Market Analysis as a first step for potential sellers. We do the work...you get peace of mind!