Curious about what your house is worth today? I get this question all the time. Should you have to share your email or phone number to get the answer? I’d rather not. You know you’ll get hassled by a salesperson if you type it on the web. So, here’s the thing…
Have you seen this saying before? It makes complete sense. And, it applies to literally everything! From toys unwrapped by kids on Christmas all the way up to high-end services like investment advisors or real estate transactions. How does this apply to the value of your house? I’m glad you asked!
When we look at websites, like Zillow, that will give you your home’s value very fast, at zero cost, according to this saying, it won’t be good. There are many ways to get your house evaluation online. These are all over the Internet and are called AVMs or Automated Valuation Models. They are definitely fast and (mostly) cheap but you definitely get what you pay for—a poor result.
Finding Representative Sales
There are so many ways of looking at things. The simplest usually means the largest. If your home is here in Louisville, you can look at citywide home values. In fact, I publish this data every month. You can find it on our Average Home Price in Louisville Kentucky page.
This is all of Jefferson County. It’s only somewhat useful when trying to find the value of your house. So, we need to zoom in.
We could look at the numbers for your home’s area. Here in Louisville, we divide the city into 10 MLS areas. Here is the Louisville MLS Areas Map. Let’s say your home is located within Area 6. If you look at the top of this page, there’s a link called Housing Reports, if you mouse over that link you’ll reveal all the different MLS area links. Click on the one for Area 6: Okolona.
Now we’re getting closer!
But wait just a second. From the looks of this chart, home values in Area 6 are skyrocketing over the past 12 months. Does that mean your home has done the same? Maybe. Maybe not.
What if we only look at the home value changes for your neighborhood? That’s even better! But there’s still a better way…
First-Hand Inspection by an Expert
In order for any real estate agent to give you and good (i.e. accurate) value for your home, that person will need to actually see your home. Obvious, right? You’ll need to invite the agent to your home and give them the grand tour. The agent should take notes and ask the right questions. Then the real work begins.
Remember our graphic at the start? We have an opportunity to break the saying. Watch this!
In order to get a GOOD result, which in this case is the value of your house, it definitely won’t be FAST but it can still be CHEAP. In fact, most real estate agents won’t charge you a dime to complete a Competitive Market Analysis (CMA). I know I don’t.
What have we learned? If you want to know “What is a house worth today?” going online will get you a fast answer, possibly even cheaply, just by giving away your personal contact info. But even then it wouldn’t be a quality answer. In order to get that, you’ll need an in-home visit by a real estate expert who will then create a manually adjusted CMA.
If that’s you, just contact me. I’m always happy to help get you the correct answer.
