What is Your Home Worth? The million dollar (well, maybe less) question…

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What is Your Home Worth? The million dollar (well, maybe less) question…many homeowners are in a great position these days to sell their home due to the current economic and real estate market conditions. While many economists and reputable resources can vouch for this statement, it’s important to understand the importance of using a Real Estate professional in order to determine your home’s current market value. Equally important is the real estate professional’s ability to discuss how their marketing tools can promote and expose your home to the largest possible audience of potential buyers.

I recently ran a quick study of a few homes to see what information the public websites provide homeowners/potential sellers versus what data and information I have access to and well…the differences were certainly baffling.

First, we must understand what the public websites offer and where their information and data is pulled from. Public websites such as Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com etc., mainly use their respective propriety formulas in order to “auto” calculate a home’s value. While some public websites may be more accurate than others and more accurate in certain markets, the fact remains that the estimate is not monitored by an individual real estate market expert but rather is automatically generated. Therefore, the majority of the time, you will find the estimate to be either too high or too low! Even more misleading is the fact that homeowners can personally update their homes’ information which oftentimes will skew the results! It’s no secret that we as owners, tend to “over-value” things in which we own. Yes, I’m just as guilty as many others who feel what I own is worth more than what others would be willing to pay. Everyone’s standard of value is different and that’s what makes “auto-calculated” home value websites even more confusing and misleading to the general public. More reason to hire a unbiased real estate professional to help determine a home’s market value. There’s no emotional tie to the property and the valuation is determined solely off of facts and accurate data that we as real estate professionals have exclusive access to.

To further elaborate on my case, let’s take a look at a few examples. Subject property “A” shows an estimated market value of $135,339 on Zillow, $106,000 on Trulia, & $91,533 on Realtor.com. Quite a substantial difference, huh? When I take a detailed look into the data I have available, apply necessary adjustments for condition, upgrades, comparable homes, recent sales, tax records, privacy and location factors, I determine that this property would likely sell in this market for $115-$125k. There’s multiple marketing strategies I use which could possibly cause the property to sell for more than this range however there’s always the potential buyer’s appraisal that would ultimately determine/confirm the offered sales price. (Appraisals are always a good idea prior to listing, in this market.) Taking a look at subject property “B”shows an estimated market value of $181,621 on Zillow, $195,000 on Trulia, & $170,997 on Realtor.com. When I evaluate this property using similar methods as property “A”, I determine property “B” would likely sell anywhere from $160k-$172k. Typically, the higher price range home, the higher amount of error will occur from the public website “valuation” figures. Take a look at subject property “C” which shows an estimated market value of $430,022 on Zillow, $408,804 on Trulia, & $345,620 on Realtor.com. This home recently sold for $363k! One recent comical story in the world of real estate shares with us the fact that the CEO of Zillow recently sold his home for a substantially lesser amount than what Zillow had estimated the home was worth! Ouch!

Now the above examples are 1/2 of an ice cube on the tip of the iceberg however they do provide great examples of common errors that the public websites offer. Homeowners/Sellers must seek competent, real estate professional evaluations when they are considering to sell if the sale is to be successful. Some agents sadly will take a listing for whatever the seller wants to sell for and not advise the sellers on value properly in order to save face and simply agree. This tends to backfire on all parties when the home is overpriced and is what I consider, a disservice to the sellers. We’ll take a look at the implications of overpricing in the next blog…

Again, while the above may be somewhat vague and generalized, I cannot emphasize enough the importance of hiring a professional. If you’re considering to sell soon and you’d like a free in-home evaluation of your home’s value, please feel free to reach out to me by phone, email, or through my website. I’ll leave with this quote I’ve seen many times and couldn’t be more true in this scenario…”If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.”

Regards,

Sean Swauger, REALTOR

727-415-6220  OR sswauger@bhhsfloridaproperties.com OR http://www.sswauger.bhhsfloridaproperties.com/

 

First blog post

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Hello to those who are looking forward to what’s next from me, Sean Swauger, Sales Executive for Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices (BHHS) – Florida Properties Group. Whether you’re an investor, buyer, seller, friend, family, or another agent, I hope the Real Estate information, professional advice, and occasional off-topic blogs and articles I post will find you thinking to yourself, “Wow, that makes sense.” or at least give you insight in regards to the dynamic world of Real Estate. I encourage your interaction, questions, comments, thoughts on future topics. Also encouraged from you are requests for more information.

Feel free to follow me on the social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, LinkedIN, YouTube, Google+ and this blog via WordPress. You will likely have the best results by searching Google for me by name. Also check out my website which has some great Real Estate tools & information at www.sswauger.bhhsfloridaproperties.com

Talk Soon!