What is My Home Worth?

Any valuation of your house is an estimate. Even a professional appraisal is an opinion, albeit an educated one, of what the property might sell for if it were on the market. A property’s value is also a snapshot in time, because its value changes over time. The local housing market might improve or decline; the local economy may have a upswing or a downturn, thereby raising or lowering property values of homes in the area; the house itself may be given an addition or fall into disrepair. Nonetheless, there are several ways to find an “estimated value” of your home.

OPTION 1:
Make a note of which properties in your neighborhood have sold recently (within the past 12 months) and if they are similar to yours. Write down their addresses, and then call your local county recorder’s office. Ask the recorder’s office how much each property sold for. The information is a matter of public record, so you have a right to know it. You can also go online to the recorder’s website and look up the information, but bear in mind that some municipalities are several months behind in updating their public databases, so the selling price you see online might be the property’s previous selling price. The date of sale will be listed, so you will know if it is current or not. From this information, do a quick comparison of your property to come up with an estimate of your home’s value. Add or subtract value to your home as appropriate. For instance, if your house is the same size as a recently sold property, but the your lot size is much smaller, your property will be less valuable.

OPTION 2:
Use our website “online home value estimators” which you can use for free. This estimator will scan data from various sources including public and private databases. When using most of them, you are asked various questions about your house, like its square footage, date of construction and number of bedrooms and bathrooms. When you submit your information, it will provide you with an estimated fair market value of your property. It may also list properties that are currently for sale in your area, and list their asking price. It assumes these other properties have already calculated their own Fair Market Values (FMVs) in order to set their asking prices, so it bases your home’s estimate on this information.

OPTION 3:
Hire a professional property appraiser to perform an appraisal of your property. This is the surest way to obtain a useful and accurate estimate of your home’s current value.