Did you know that the average sales price of new homes sold in the United States was $385,000 in 2018?
If you are looking to sell your home but don’t know how to calculate the market value of it then check out our guide on how you can work out your home value.
Calculate Home Value
Calculating your home’s value can be a good thing to do even if you aren’t considering selling a home. As it shows you your overall financial situation and your home assets.
There are numerous factors that determine how much your house is worth, for example, the size and age of the house, the renovations and repairs that have been done, the location, and the current economic conditions.
Use Online Valuation Tools
The first thing you want to do is go online and use valuation tools. These tools calculate your home’s value based on the information you submit. The outcome is that you receive a ballpark figure of what your house is worth.
When putting in your data and information be as thorough as possible. This will ensure the evaluation is accurate.
There are a number of online valuation tools available for the home buyer to use for free. Another benefit of using a valuation tool is that the websites offer a quick evaluation of your property.
The disadvantages of using these tools are that
- they might not be completely accurate. The tools only offer an estimate and don’t take into account things that might add more value to your home such as renovations.
- different calculation tools provide you with different price estimations, which can be confusing.
So remember that the evaluation from these tools might not be accurate. To get a further understanding of your home’s value you need to talk to a realtor.
Get in Touch with a Realtor
The second step to calculating your home value is getting in touch with a realtor. Realtors can act as a second opinion on the online tools estimation. They can determine your property’s value by looking at available information on homes similar to yours.
A realtor will take into consideration any renovations or repairs (something that the online calculation tool can’t do). Then they will look at homes which are similar to yours and see how much they are selling for, how long it takes to sell, and what the homes sold for compared to the original price asked for.
The homes that they compare your home with, will be similar in terms of location, size, style, home type, and recent sales prices in the area.
Hire a Professional Appraiser
People who are buying a home and need to take out a mortgage need to hire an appraiser to provide a thoroughly researched estimate of a home’s value. But you can hire an appraiser at any time to run an evaluation on your home.
A professional appraiser gives you an impartial estimate based on:
- the market (such as the region, city, and neighborhood you live in)
- the property (such as the characteristics of the house, the improvements made, and the land it sits on)
- and the comparable properties (such as the sales, listings, vacancies, cost, etc. of houses that are similar to yours).
The appraiser also takes into consideration the sales history of your property and the amount it would cost to rebuild the home.
When you are looking to hire an appraiser, make sure you find someone who is qualified to do so, and someone who has experience appraising properties similar to yours.
It is also a bonus if your appraiser knows the local market well so that he/she is knowledgable about house prices in your area.
An appraiser can cost anywhere between $250 and $450, with the average appraiser costing $334.
An obvious benefit of hiring an appraiser is that they can provide you with an accurate evaluation of your market value. They can also help you to improve your home value by suggesting to do repairs on your property.
However, if you don’t want to sell your home right away, then it is a lot of money for a current estimate that may not be accurate by the time you want to sell your home.
Analyze Your Own Comps
An alternative to hiring an appraiser, you could carry out your own evaluation on your property. If you are on a tight budget, this will help you save money.
You can use similar data and information that can help you determine your home value. To do this you need to compare your house with ones that are similar in your area.
When finding comparisons between houses and your home, think about the structural components and features, the age and size of the property, and previous sale history.
You also need to consider whether your property or those you are comparing, have had any renovations or repairs recently and to what standard.
Look online at the properties which are like yours that have recently been sold. Then compare the overall condition of the home (by looking at photos). When you are looking at these properties, also note how much they were listed for and how much they sold for.
Remember, when you run your own comps evaluation that some of the differences between the houses might affect the overall value of the property.
If you live in Austin and want to sell your home, you can get a top purchase price right away, see here for more details on how much money you can get for your house.
Calculate Your Home’s Market Value
As you can see calculating your home’s value is all about comparing different properties and features. If you want to know how much your property is worth then follow our guide on how to calculate your home’s market value.
Check out our blog for more information about your home.
