To Determine Your Home's Value, Scoot Away From the Keyboard

The popularity of home valuation web sites, including auditor’s sites, has raised a new issue of what data is reliable when determining a home’s market value. Before a listing appointment, or when assisting a buyer with an offer, I pour over stats, and prepare information. I am secure in my evaluation.  I combine the stats with good old fashioned market knowledge.  There is a good chance that I have shown or sold homes in the neighborhood, only to have a customer or client negate my hard work and knowledge by playing the “But the website says…” card.

Let’s take the house I call home.  The auditor’s site is correct. The above grade square footage is accurate. They are also allowing a little less than 1/3 of the total finished basement, about 600 square feet, as we have a side walkout. The lot size is correct. The assessed value, in ratio to current market value, appears valid.

However, a site accessed from Greater Cincinnati Multiple Listing Service, called Realist, used by many agents in the area, including yours truly, is incorrect. It has the square footage correct, but the lot size is inaccurate. We have just over a 1/2 acre lot, and Realist states that we have a .25 acre lot.

If our home were on the market, and a buyer that didn’t know any better went by one popular online valuation site, they would not have the correct square footage information (no finished basement square footage noted) to make a decent evaluation.   To complicate matters, they have our home posted in the wrong school district……not even close.
Poor information at best!

If you formed an offer on our home based on the information provided by that erroneous site, I would have to run you off my front sidewalk!

Now, on the other hand, if you went to another popular .com site to their Find Home Values section, and brought us an offer based on their valuation….well, you have yourself a deal!!!  I can be moved by the end of the month!!
 
There was a $40,000 difference in those two sites alone. Personally, I preferred the valuation that was about $40,000 over true market value, but I have to confess, as a full time working agent, I knew that “there ain’t no way” my home was worth that much.

So there you have it. 1 Home. 4 Websites. 3 with Incorrect or Incomplete Information

So, all that being said, who do you trust?  Do you trust a web site that is only as good as the information entered by humans, filled with human errors?   A web site doesn’t know all the lots in the subdivision are ½ acre minimum, so this stated .25 acre is incorrect. A web site doesn’t know that when the buyers had this home built, they added a two foot bump, so this square foot information is incorrect. A web site did not step foot inside these 5 comps, or spend last week driving out of town buyers to homes that are priced exactly the same as yours, and know what buyers expect for a $200,000, $350,000, or $500,000 home.

If you want an honest and complete Home Evaluation, talk to your realtor® 

Our promise: We may not always tell you what you want to hear, but we will tell you what you need to know!