Market Value Analysis: What's Your Home Worth?

Often people are curious as to what the value is of their home. This could be for mortgage refinancing purposes, tax valuation reasons, or because they want to know how much money they might get for their home if they sold it.


Many factors play into what a home is worth. If you are planning to sell, it is important to price your home fairly and accurately from the beginning. Doing so should generate the most showings and potentially multiple offers. In addition, this often gives you, the seller, the upper hand in terms of negotiations.




Statistically, it has been shown that homes that are priced correctly sell for closer to their listing price than homes that are overpriced. And these houses generally sell in half the time as well.


To determine what someone's home is worth, I complete a market value analysis. I do this by looking at other houses that have sold. I take into consideration three factors when looking at comparable properties (CP):

1. Distance: CP should be 1/2 mile or less from the subject property
2. Similarity: CP should be similar in style and size
3. Date: CP should have sold within the last 6 months

Occasionally finding homes that are close, similar and have sold recently is not always possible. What if the subject property is a multi family property and only single family houses have sold lately? What if the last similar condo in the development sold 2 years ago? What if the house is out in the country with no other comps for miles and miles?

These issues can create a challenge. This is where I have to make adjustments. Some of the adjustments I might make include the age of the home, the number of bathrooms, square footage, renovations that have been done (bathroom or kitchen), garage (yes or no, attached or detached), basement (none, full, partial, finished or not, walk-out), patios/decks, fireplaces, new windows, or new HVAC. In terms of location, I might make adjustments for whether or not the property is on a busy road, near power lines, or has significant acreage. I have rough dollar values for all these factors and add and subtract based on how my subject's property compares to the close, similar, recently sold properties.

Then, I input all these items into a spreadsheet with the subject and at least 3 comparable properties side by side for comparison purposes. This is how I come up with an estimate of the market value of a home.


If you are interested in knowing how much your property might be worth, please contact me for a free market value analysis:


Anne-Marie Tustin, MBA
Realtor Associate in NJ & PA
Keller Williams Realty
Princeton NJ
(609) 987-8889 office
(609) 575-8801 direct
atustin@kw.com
www.Anne-MarieTustin.com