Whether you are considering selling or re-mortgaging your home, knowing how much your home is worth will make it easier to get things right the first time. No one wants their home sitting on the market for years before they get a bit from an interested party, but you also don’t want to price your home so low that you lose out. To prevent this from happening, you need to know how and where to have your home valued. If you’re not sure about how to go about this, simply read through our list of questions and answers to find out everything you need to know.
Can a home valuation decrease my property tax?
Not many people are aware that property taxes are open to appeals. If you’re able to have your home valuated, you’ll be in a better position to appeal a high property tax and bring it down to a more reasonable amount. It is up to you to do your research, however, so it helps to know where to start.
Is there an app that can value my property?
These days, apps can do just about everything from help you to purchase a new car to exploring the universe. When it comes to valuing your home, you might not be aware that there are apps that can do this too.
Homesnap, for example, is one app that offers home valuations, along with information about property lines and other properties of a similar value in your area. When choosing this type of app, make sure that you pay attention to online reviews that tell you about the experiences of others when using that specific technology. If other people had positive experiences with the app, it’s more likely that you will too.
How many homeowners use online valuation tools?
If you think inputting your address into an online search tool to get a valuation of your home is too good to be true, think again. According to a recent pole, over 20% of homeowners in the US used one of these online valuation tools to find out how much their homes are worth.
It is worth noting that you need to ensure you pick the right tool to use for this purpose – not all websites are equal when it comes to providing this information.
Which websites offer the best online valuation tools?
If you’re looking to value your home online, you should look out for the tools on real estate sites, such as Redfin or Zillow. These sites make use of automated valuation models (AVM’s) in order to determine the value of a property and they do so by utilizing a range of documents, including tax assessments, ownership deeds and property transfers in order to calculate the value of a home.
They also make use of current sales listings in your area, so if the cost of properties in your area go down, it’s likely yours will go down with it.
What is a confidence score?
Not all AVM tools are the same. When information about a property is limited, the AVM accuracy will greatly decrease and this is not great for you as a property owner. This is the reason you need to take care with the tool you use – and you can choose the right one by looking at the tool’s confidence score.
The confidence score is basically how close the score comes to estimating the properties market value. A good confidence score is within the 90% mark – meaning that it comes to within 90% of the market value in most instances.
Should I speak to a real estate expert if I have an online tool?
It’s always best to seek out the opinion of a real estate expert when you’re valuing your house, even if you have used an online valuation tool. This is not only because they will be able to provide further insight into the accuracy of the tool you used, but also to provide further helpful details, such as what changes you can expect to this over a period of time.
What is a comparative market analysis?
If you’re looking to delve deeper into the value of your home, you might want to speak to a realtor about getting a comparative market analysis on your home.
This is a detailed, professional appraisal of the property and it can help you to list your property at a competitive rate. You should be aware, however, that many realtors will then expect you to hire them as the listing agent if they’re doing the analysis so you need to ensure that you make your intentions known to them.
What is the FHFA House Price Index Calculator?
If you don’t want to use an AVM to calculate the value of your home but you still want a quick solution to your valuation needs, you can always opt to utilize the FHFA (Federal housing Financing Agency) House Price Index Calculator. This tool makes use of a complex algorithm that will calculate your home’s value based on a number of factors, including information about housing price fluctuations since the 1970’s.
You’ll need to remember, when using this tool, that it doesn’t take seasonal fluctuations or inflation into account when making these calculations, but it can help you to determine whether your home as appreciated or depreciated over time and this can help you to manage your expectations when listing your property.
What do professional appraisers evaluate?
If you don’t want to go down the online route when having your home evaluated, you can simply hire a professional to do the job for you. This might be more of an investment in terms of time and money, but it will also provide you with a wider range of details that you might not have had otherwise, including the market value, property characteristic’s value and a list of comparable properties.
Before taking the plunge with a professional, make sure you know exactly what you are going to be getting from them beforehand as some might offer more than others.
