What’s my home REALLY worth?

Home prices are on the rise and if you’ve been in your home for a number of years, it can be really exciting to know that your home value has potentially doubled or tripled. You might have seen a home in your neighborhood hit the market and been pleasantly surprised at the price, which lead you to wonder “What is my Boise home worth?”

Here’s how to determine home value on your existing home…

Call me! As a licensed REALTOR I have access to all the information about homes pending and sold near you. I also have taken classes specifically about pricing a home. And of course, I have 10+ years in the business and have a lot of experience under my belt.

What goes into determining the price of a home?

While pulling square footage and number of bedrooms does play into the value of a home, there is a lot more to it. I also consider much more, including: the age and condition of the home, any remodels, the location (both within the city and within a neighborhood), any extra features that make it stand out. I then look at comparable properties that are truly a match for your home and weigh the various attributes of the comparable home against yours to get an estimate of value. In the real estate biz we call these professional estimates a CMA (Comparative Market Analysis).

Is Zillow home value accurate?

You’ve likely heard of Zillow and their “Zestimate” home value information. Zillow uses algorithms that calculate a range of worth for your home based on a few facts including: historical transactions in the area as well as county and tax assessor records. While a Zestimate can be an interesting starting point in discovering the actual worth of your home, even Zillow themselves advises you to "supplement the Zestimate with other research such as visiting the home, getting a professional appraisal of the home, or requesting a comparative market analysis (CMA) from a real estate agent."

Here’s why Zillow can’t compare to a professional CMA. The algorithm doesn’t know that the home down the street backs up to a busy public street, which decreases value on a home. And Zillow also doesn’t know that your neighbors home that just sold had every moulding chewed off by their five dogs. If those two homes are included in your Zestimate, it can really throw off the value of your home which is on a quiet cul-de-sac with upgrades throughout. A real estate agent pulls up past listings for the comparable homes, looks through past listing photos for condition, checks maps and excludes any properties that are not truly a match for your home.

In addition, Idaho is a non-disclosure state, which means sellers are not required to publicly list sold price, so some of the comparable homes in your area may not even be showing up in the Zillow algorithm. That information would be listed in the MLS database, for me to see.

If you’re curious, I’d be happy to run a CMA for you, so you now exactly what your Treasure Valley home is worth. You can call me, or head here and fill out this CMA request form.