How Much Is Your Home Worth?

Trying to determine the worth of your home is one of the first steps you will take in your selling journey. Of course, it is vital to figure out what your asking price should be, but home value also affects property taxes, insurance, and any home equity line.

There are several options to get that magic number.

1. Google Gets It
   As with most things, you can find help for getting home market value on the internet. Almost a quarter of homeowners in the U.S. use one of several online tools to estimate their home's worth. The basic ones found on real estate sites use a conglomeration of public records that can give you a number that is fairly close but should not be used as a final number. When you need it, your real estate professional has access to tools with more data, making their estimate more pinpoint.
   
   
2. Comparative Market Research
   This kind of estimation is one step up from your regular online tools. A real estate agent can provide what is known as a comparative market analysis. Agents use this to list your home. This not only uses information about your house but also the similar houses in the area around your property.
   
   
3. Bring in a Professional
   When you are ready for a more solid number, you may need to shell out some money and hire a professional appraiser. Most lenders will require such an appraisal before a mortgage can go through, but even if you are not at that point, you can still hire one. The professional will look at factors like the city and neighborhood where the house is located; other homes in the market and what their listings, vacancies, depreciation, and other costs are; and your home's unique characteristics, like what kind of improvements you have made and what features the property includes.
   
   
4. Fire Up the Calculator
   Another option to get an idea of your home's worth is to check out the Housing Price Index Calculator from the Federal Housing Financing Agency. This federal resource doesn't actually tell you what your home is worth but rather how much it would be worth if it gained value at the average appreciation rate. You can find the calculator online, and it is simple to fill in the form and get a number. The HPI calculator uses mortgage information gathered since the 1970s to see how values in a given area go up and down.
   
   
5. Keeping up with the Joneses
   And finally, the simplest way to get a range of what your home is worth is to look at the prices of homes nearby that have sold recently. You can check real estate sites to see what homes are selling for. It is important to remember that there are a lot of factors that go into a home's value, so use this number warily.

Selling your house comes with a lot of steps. The first should be to know what you have for sale and what its worth is.

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