There are several ways that the value of a home is determined by home sellers and Realtors alike. The traditional way to find out a home’s value is to pay to have an independent appraisal done on your home. The cost of an appraisal ranges from $450 – $600 for a regular size home and lot and goes up in price for larger square footage homes with acreage. An appraisal is an accurate, time-sensitive valuation of your home based on the latest home sales in your neighborhood or area of town. The appraisal includes a complete description of your home with all of its amenities and additions, as well as basic information such as square footage, bedrooms and baths, and number of rooms. Numerous pictures are also taken of the home and grounds and are included in the report. People who find and hire their own appraisers typically can find out, fairly accurately, the value of their home.
However, most home sellers do not want to have to fork out hundreds of dollars to an appraiser, just to put their house on the market for sale. If a seller chooses to sell their home themselves, they may use current sale prices, a percentage added to their old home sales price, or talk to other people who have their homes for sale in order to come to a price. Sometimes, if they are looking to make a certain amount of money, they will come up with a figure that represents the amount of profit they wish to make.
As a sales agent, I try to set reasonable expectations for my clients by meeting them somewhere in the middle of these two extreme processes. As a Realtor, I have access to what would be called “comps,” or comparisons of homes in similar condition that have recently sold in their area. I also thoroughly discuss my sellers’ expectations as to what type of financial gain they expect to get from selling their home. Then, I make suggestions for repairing and / or staging the house for sale in order to meet these financial goals.
If you are interested in putting your home for sale and want to know how much your home is worth, I can definitely assist you in this process as well as supply you with the information you will need in order to attempt to achieve the maximum amount of money during your home sale. I work not only with individual homeowners, but I also work with builders and developers in selling new home construction as well.