Why your Online Instant Home Valuation isn’t worth the Wait

The online instant home valuation became popular with Zillow. Today this service is available on most Real Estate websites, including mine. Many Realtors advertise the service online and in social media to gather leads. Another name for the instant valuation is Automated Valuation Model or AVM.

These AVM’s attempt to assign a value to the property based on publicly available information. Data sources include other properties on the market, recently sold homes and county tax records.

AVM estimates shouldn’t be taken as gospel because they’re only as good as the data available. Public records may be out of date, inaccurate or incomplete. In addition, they don’t account for the physical condition of the property, upgraded features or neighborhood amenities which are either there presently or being developed.

Say for instance you purchased a fixer-upper. During the next six months you repainted, changed out flooring, updated the kitchen appliances and countertops. Maybe updated the bathrooms. All these activities usually do not need city permitting. So, all the AVM would have is what you purchased the property for and there would be no change in valuation.

If you really want to know the value of your home contact 2-3 experienced Realtors who work in your community. They will come out and view your home, talk to you about updates you have made, and compare all of its features and amenities to similar homes that have sold in the area. Then they can tell you the market price, or value of your home. This service is often called a CMA/Comparative Market Analysis and it is free.

If you are interested in getting a free CMA on your home to learn its market value, contact Realtor Dan Kokesh for a no-obligation seller consultation.