What Your Home Is Worth
An automated estimate has never seen your kitchen, your roof, or the house two streets over that sold badly. Mine has.
Why the online estimate is wrong, in both directions
Automated valuations work from public records and recent sales. They do not know what you did to the kitchen, whether the roof is four years old or nineteen, or that the house two streets over sold badly because of a situation that had nothing to do with the market.
That cuts both ways. Sometimes the estimate is high and a seller lists on it, sits for two months and takes a reduction. Sometimes it is low and a seller assumes they cannot afford to move.
The gap is not a rounding error. On a house in this market it is regularly tens of thousands of dollars, in either direction.
What a real valuation includes
Comparable sales that are genuinely comparable. Same area, similar condition, recent enough to mean something, and adjusted for the differences rather than averaged.
What is currently for sale. Your competition decides what a buyer sees next after your listing, and it affects your number as much as what already sold.
What is sitting unsold, and why. The most useful data in any market. A house that has been listed for ninety days is telling you exactly where the ceiling is.
Your actual house. Its condition, its updates, its position on the street, and what a buyer will notice first.
A net figure, not a list price. What would reach you after costs, which is the number that actually answers your question.
No obligation, and I mean it
A valuation is not a listing appointment with a different name. Plenty of people want to know what their house is worth for reasons that have nothing to do with selling this year: refinancing, an estate, a divorce, a decision about whether to renovate, or simple curiosity about an asset that is probably the largest thing you own.
You get the number and the reasoning behind it. If selling is not the right move right now, I will tell you that, including when the answer costs me a listing.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the valuation really free?
Yes, with no obligation and no follow-up campaign you did not ask for. Plenty of people want the number for reasons that have nothing to do with selling.
How is this different from the estimate on a search site?
An automated estimate works from public records. It has not been inside your house, does not know the condition of anything, and cannot tell a genuine comparable sale from a distressed one. Those differences regularly run into tens of thousands of dollars.
Do you need to come inside?
For an accurate number, yes. Condition and updates are most of the difference between two houses with identical square footage. I can give you a preliminary range from the outside and the records, but I will tell you it is a range.
What if I am not selling for a couple of years?
Then it is a good time to get the number, because the decisions that raise it are the ones made well in advance rather than the month before listing.
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