How to determine the value of my home

The most common method of determining a price for a house is the Comparable Market Analysis (CMA). A CMA will show exactly what properties that are similar to your house have sold for within a recent time frame.

These analyses are based on fact?

These analyses are based on fact, rather than opinion, and that information will always be of more value to you. Generally, CMAs will list houses in a particular location that are currently on the market, have sales pending on them, have expired from the market, and have sold. Be forewarned: it is primarily the SOLD properties that you need to be concerned with.

My Neighborhood is selling his home, can I sell at the same price

Be careful What houses are listed for on the market is not always a good indication of what their value is, those that have pending sales will only tell you what the listing price is (not what it is going to sell for), and those that have expired because they haven't sold may indicate that they didn't move because they were overpriced.

The Comparable Market Analysis will be same as the appraisal?

The CMA will most likely give you some general information about the houses that will be compared: Number of bedrooms and baths, square footage, the listing price and the sold price. It is important that the CMA focuses on houses similar to yours. If your house is a 4 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath 2 story, a CMA that lists only 3 bedroom 1 bath homes is of little or no value. Likewise, a CMA that includes a number of properties from a neighborhood 2 miles away will have limited value.

To have a good CMA you must have all of the similar sales in the neighborhood in the last year. Obviously, the fresher the data (the more houses sold in the last few months), the better the CMA.

Many home sellers get confused between a Comprehensive Market Analysis and an Appraisal. This is easy to understand because both have many common elements. Generally, a CMA is done by Realtors to establish the most likely selling price for a property. To do this they look at the most recent sales of identical properties to yours in your neighborhood.

These sales must be within the last year and it is preferred if they have occurred within the last six months. There must be three or more sales. If there have not been three sales, the Realtor will look in the closest subdivision with similar homes to yours. If this also fails, then homes that are not identical to yours, but are as close as possible will be used.

An Appraisal goes through the same pricing steps as a CMA. It is done by a professional who has taken classes and passed the State examination. They can also prepare a suggested value before listing or selling a home, the cost is usually around $250 to $300. However, many banks will not allow an appraisal done before a sale to be used for the buyer. They may still demand that the buyer purchase a separate appraisal to verify that the home is worth at least what they have offered.

Because of this, most sellers do not purchase an appraisal before they sell their home, but rely on the CMA. The appraisal therefore, certifies to the bank and secondary mortgage investors that the buyer has paid fair market value for a home or less. That the home is not worth less than the amount offered by the buyer. If the buyer paid, less than fair market value, an appraisal will usually not show this fact.

How to determine the value of my home

Your home's market value is an important factor in a long list of financial decisions, including selling the home, refinancing your mortgage, borrowing against your equity, estimating your annual property tax bill, buying homeowner's insurance, calculating the expected return on remodeling costs, managing your other investments, estate planning and so on.

The trick is figuring out how much your home is worth -- and remembering that how much you paid for it months or years ago isn't relevant to its current market value. It's not a bad idea to gather information from several sources and compare the findings, rather than relying on just one approach to home valuation.