How To Determine Property Value In Today's Market
In today's market where there are so many foreclosure and bank REO sales
, figuring out the real value of a property can be difficult. The comparable sales method is the most commonly used -- and still the most accurate one -- to determine the value of single-family homes, condominiums and smaller rental buildings.
Start by researching information about sold properties on your local government Web sites for your target area. Many tax assessor's offices and county courthouses offer search-able online databases that allow you to view the prices for properties within a specific area.
They usually list full details about the properties, including square footage. Plus, subscriber Web sites such as Electronic Appraiser give you detailed information, particularly in areas where online data is scarce.
Free Web sites also offer property data, but the information is less detailed than for the paid sites. For example, the seller's name may be missing, which could be relevant if the seller was a bank, as in the case of a foreclosure sale.
If that's the case, it can't be considered a comparable sale because the property was sold in distress. Be careful about using Web sites that offer a computer-generated valuation.
These are called automated valuation models (AVMs), which aggregate sales data from comparable properties to determine an estimated price. While AVMs can be a benchmark for determining value, they can be off by as much as 10% or more.
With a little research, you can pinpoint the value to as close as 3 to 5% percent. The most useful computer database for getting information about comparable properties is the local MLS.
This database shows the number of days on market and includes notes that indicate whether the property was updated, whether the seller offered concessions on the sale and so on. This additional data is generally not available through other sources, so asking a real estate agent or appraiser to help you will be crucial, because most MLS systems aren't accessible to the general public.
While many factors come into play when you're evaluating a residential property's value by "comps" (comparable sales), the three key factors are location, size (square footage) of the home and the number of bedrooms and bathrooms. Obviously, you'll need to look at many other aspects before you can pinpoint the exact value of a property, but these are the "big three."
You should be able to look at comparable sales involving properties with these three factors and get a good idea of the value of the property you're selling. Location is extremely important when you're comparing sold properties.
A professional appraiser typically looks at houses within a one-mile radius or less, and so should you. In the case of a subdivision -- where the houses are all similar and built in the same time period -- you need to compare similar houses with similar styles in the same subdivision to get an accurate valuation.
If there's a wide mix of properties in the subdivision, you may need to go outside of it to get comparable sales. Just be careful with "dividing lines."
Geographic lines such as opposite sides of the river, the park, or a main highway can be invisible dividing lines that put the property in another school district and may not garner equitable comps.
When determining a home's value, be sure to evaluate the square footage.
Note that appraisers typically look at homes that are within 20% up or down in square footage as comparable. Generally (especially within a subdivision), most homes fall within a fairly limited size range.
Therefore, you should be able to develop a good gauge for the selling price of homes in those particular sizes. Of course, not all square footage is created equal.
Most people think that if a house has 1,000 square feet and is worth $100,000, then the 1,100 square-foot house next door would be worth $110,000. Wrong-the extra 10% in square footage equals only a few percentage points in value.
If these two houses offer the same location, style, and number of bedrooms and baths, the 10% additional square footage won't change the valuation much. This is because there is a fixed cost on a house based on the value of the land, cost of construction, sewer, subdivision plans and other factors.
An extra few hundred feet of space involves very little cost -- only wood, nails, carpet and possibly some minor electrical and plumbing costs. As you can see, there are many factors which can help you to determine the worth of your property in today's market-figure it out today!
by: Jack Landry
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