Determining The Market Value of Your Home

When preparing to list your home, a crucial aspect to a successful sale is to properly determine the market value of your home. The closer you list to the determined market value, the more quickly your home will sell and of course the more likely you are to sell.

The most common way to determine the market value of your home is by a comparable sales approach. Using this approach, a professional will search for comparable sales that are most like your home using the following criteria (to name a few): location, architecture style, square footage and condition that has sold the most recently to reflect the current market. It is not always likely that you will find homes exactly like yours with the same floor plan in the same neighborhood that are recent enough sales to reflect the current market, therefore a professional will adjust the valuation accordingly. Adjustments are done on square footage, condition, out buildings, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, basements (finished or unfinished), garages etc.

This is precisely why internet companies that use algorithms to value homes are commonly known for being incorrect. Therefore, a human being with logic who can use both objective and subjective reasoning is necessary. Let’s explore some examples.

A home I recently ran comps for in Sanford was given an "Insert internet company name here estimate" of nearly $75,000 ABOVE what the home appraised for. Upon discovering which comps were used, the algorithm was using several homes that while they were in close proximity, they were actually waterfront properties, and the home I was analyzing was not. I think we can all agree that even an identical home is going to sell for a very different price on the lake vs not being on the lake.

A second example relates to a property in the City of Midland. The algorithm was picking up on a foreclosed property sale (therefore lowering the estimate of the subject property), which in most situations are not fair comps to use as it was not a traditional sale/situation.

My recommendation is to sit down and do the market analysis WITH me, which we can also do virtually. You can see the market and make a pricing determination with me based on data points that are right in front of your eyes and feel more informed and confident in the value of your home!

If you want to get your home’s estimated market value, contact me today!

Teresa Quintana

Realtor®

Modern Realty

6024 Eastman Ave, Midland, Michigan 48642

(989)859-2326

teresa@modernrealty.us