While you will need to know what your home is worth before you list it for sale, there are other reasons to check the value of a house. These include buying homeowner’s insurance, refinancing, and as a buyer if you are in the market for a new place. However, most people don’t have a clue how to go about determining the value of a house. While prices tend to follow market trends, homes tend to continually appreciate and prices will usually move upwards faster in times of high demand. Conversely, rising interest rates tend to reduce demand and cause prices to stagnate or even occasionally decline. For these reasons, it is important to know how to check the value of your home to know what it is worth in today’s market. The three most common methods used to calculate the value of a home are performing a CMA, using online estimator tools, and having the house professionally appraised.
1. Perform a CMA
CMA stands for a “comparative market analysis” and is also referred to as a price comparison analysis or just a “comp.” The CMA compares a house to other similar properties in the same area to see what those properties have sold for recently, generally within the last six-month period. This will provide you with a ballpark figure, but this is typically just a starting point and the value must be adjusted up or down depending on the home’s specific features. For example, if another three-bedroom, two-bath ranch recently sold for $500K, but it did not have a pool and your house does, then the value of the pool will need to be accounted for. The most effective way for a homeowner to perform a CMA is to consult the “sold” listings on real estate websites. This is a quick and painless way to perform home price comparisons as most real estate companies keep all the recent properties they have sold listed on their website as a means of marketing to show potential clients they can produce results.
2. Online Valuation Tool
One of the fastest ways to determine the value of a home is by using an online home value estimator tool. Technically known as an automated valuation model, or AVM, these are just an automated CMA as these tools use an aggregation of all the homes sold in a given area over the past six- to 12-month period. The major benefit of using an online AVM is you will receive an immediate estimate. However, as a word of caution, various websites often use different metrics to calculate the value of a property so be sure to only use well-established and reputable sites. Performing an online search for “how much is my home worth?” will reveal a list of online value estimators. However, you will probably have better results with searches more specific to your city, town, or neighborhood. For example, if you are selling a property in the New Orleans, Louisiana area, you can perform a search for “how to calculate the home value in New Orleans.”
3. Consult a Real Estate Professional
Perhaps the most accurate way to determine the value of your home is by consulting a real-estate appraiser as this is how mortgage lenders determine how much they are willing to lend on a property. While having your home professionally appraised will cost a little money, the appraiser is trained to look at all the factors that contribute to a home’s value, factors that are not always taken into account in a CMA or AVM. These include, but are not limited to, the neighborhood, current market conditions as well as the current condition of the property and comparable homes in the area. You can also consult an experienced real estate agent who will not charge for the appraisal in the hopes of getting the listing, but the valuation may not be as accurate as one performed by an appraiser.
Summary
The bottom line is your home is worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it. The actual value will depend on many factors that include the condition of your home and the current market trends. While you can, and probably should consult a trained professional to help establish the real market value of your home, you can also perform the job yourself. To help prevent pricing your home too high or too low, the best approach is to use all the available methods to give you a more comprehensive picture of a home’s value.
