3 Ways To Determine The Value Of Your Property Without An Appraiser

To determine the value of a property, it usually takes a trained professional appraiser to get the job done. As I mentioned in my previous blog, too many variables are involved in evaluating the value of a property. Each of those variables can have impact on the accuracy of the appraisal. That is why you may want to spend three to four hundred dollars to hire a home appraiserto get a better idea on the value of your home.

But, if you don’t want to spend your money for an appraisal, there are other ways to help you get an estimate of your property value. But, before you start to evaluate your property value, I suggest you read my blog first, on how a real estate appraiser determines the value of a property, and then proceed.

Please click this link to read it first if you don't know how an appraiser determines the value of a property. http://besthomesellingtips.com/2007/08/15/how-does-a-real-estate-appraiser-determine-the-value-of-a-property/

Are you done reading my previous blog? Now, you are ready to determine your home value without spending your money.
Here are 3 ways to do it.

1.      Broker’s Personal Opinion or BPO.

You can ask one of your friends who are a real estate agent to do a comparative market analysis(CMA). If you don’t have a realtor friend, call any of the real estate agents in your area and ask the agent to do one for you. Most of them will be very happy to do it for you. It only takes about ten minutes or so. The right properties similar to your house, usually those sold recently in you neighborhood, are called “Comps” in a CMA.

2.      Online Tools

There are few websites offer great tools for Comps. Some of them are free and some are not. The greatest one is zillow.com and it is free. It has a value assigned to each property. But, you should be very careful because they are not always right.  Most of the properties in your neighborhood may not the valid comps.

You should check at least three important factors to see your comps are valid or not when you are using zillow.com to determine your property value:

1) Time the property sold.
The closer to today the better. Houses sold one year ago may not valid at all.

2) Proximity in distance.
It has to be less than one mile. The best ones are the properties in your owner subdivision or street.

3) Similarity.
The comps should be similar in square foot, number of bedrooms and bathroom, similar structure, age of construction, amenities, and conditions. The difference of square foot should be less than 10%.
 
There are paid online service tools you can use. Since myself is a real estate agent, I have never used those online service tools and cannot make any recommendations.  You have to check it out yourself.

3.      County’s Public Records

Most counties in US have public records on each property sold from the County Tax Assessor.  You can go the county’s to get it physically or go online to do. Most counties charge a small fee in order for you to access the records online.

You should apply the same principles I described above for the valid comps or the property value estimatewon’t be right.

Related articles on home selling tips:

http://besthomesellingtips.com/2007/08/15/how-does-a-real-estate-appraiser-determine-the-value-of-a-property/

http://besthomesellingtips.com/2007/07/11/ten-cheap-ways-to-upgrade-your-home-for-a-very-good-return/

http://besthomesellingtips.com/2007/07/19/how-to-pricing-home-for-sale-right/

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