ONLINE HOME VALUATION
A simple place to start determining the market value of a house is at your computer. There are any number of free online tools which will provide an estimate of your home’s current value using a comprehensive database of recent comparable home sales in your area. Note that the assessment is based on available data with no guarantee of accuracy and often using an algorithm that simply averages comparable sales in the geographic area. These are quick and easy, but do not answer questions regarding factors like location and current local trends. Be aware that in practice, the prices arrived at might be highly inaccurate and should be treated as a ballpark estimate at best. For example, a home in Ohio was put into one such system, Redfin (go to www.redfin.com and hover over the “Sell” dropdown, and an option titled “What Is My Home Worth” should appear), last sold for $180,000 in 1998; it was appraised for refinancing in 2015 at $275,000. In 2017, Redfin’s calculator valued this 1890 Victorian home (4 bedrooms, 1.5 baths, and 2100 sq. ft.) in a four-block area of “Grand Old Ladies” at $158,00. The apparent reason is that the six “comps” (comparable recent sales) include only 2 homes in this desirable neighborhood (over $300,000), while four others are outside this small neighborhood, although close, and sold for $150,000 to $199,000. Information that would be known to real estate professionals with expertise in the area is missing. These tools are worthwhile for obtaining “comps” of area sales; however, they are not highly accurate in arriving at a listing price.
PROFESSIONAL APPRAISAL
Nothing determines the sale price of a piece of real estate but the price at which it sells. Houses are not same-price identical tins of tuna on the grocery store shelf, nor shares of stock valued and traded every day on the stock exchange.
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