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How to Determine a Home Value and Why it is Important

Are you wondering what the house you are about to buy or the one you are staying in is really worth?  It is important to remember that, a house is worth what someone is willing to pay for it. The value of the house will depend on the market, and whether you are asking the question to a county tax assessor, an agent or a lender.

Instead of going by what others tell you, why not enlist the services of Mark Ellis – Sydney Property Valuations. They will be able to let you know how to calculate the value of your home using trained professionals and with the help of online tools. This will in the process, help you to prepare yourself to sell, buy, refinance, tap into the equity of your home or even be in a position to negotiate lower property taxes.  

Here are some of what Mark Ellis – Sydney Property Valuations will let you know about how to determine the value of your home.

  • Get a comparative market analysis

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When you are yearning to know the value of your home, you can go ahead and ask a local agent to give you a comparative analysis, abbreviated CMA. Though it is not as detailed as a professional appraisal, it is going to provide you with the evaluation of your home and market to provide a value that is estimated for listing purposes. The local agent might provide a CMA for no cost or at a minimum cost with the hope of you hiring them as your selling agent.

  • Using the FHFA house price index calculator

If you want a quick estimate of your house value and yet you are wary of AVMs, the FHFA calculator which applies a more scientific approach can be of good help. It uses a repeated sales method. There are millions of mortgage transactions which have been gathered for a very long time – since its inception in the 1970s which FHFA uses to track the changes of a house from one particular sale to the next. Armed with such information, it then uses it to estimate the fluctuation of a particular house in a certain market.

  • Hiring a professional appraiser

Before a mortgage is approved, most lenders require an appraisal and thus, as a property owner, you can hire someone as an appraiser to estimate the value of your house at whatever time, even when you don’t require a loan.This all can applying when buying condo too. If you are considering on buying one, make sure to ask for the value of it. You can checkout wellcondotoronto.ca if you’re planning to buy a condo in Toronto. 

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The appraiser will be able to give you a value which will be based on your needs. You might want the value for a date in the past, a current market value for purchase or refinancing.  Other things which the appraiser will be able to do for you include

  • Market: The neighborhood, city, and region in which the home is located
  • Property: The characteristics of the house which will include the land it sits on and the improvements
  • Comparable properties: Includes listings, sales, cost, vacancies, depreciation and other factors which are similar to houses in the same market.