How Much Is Your Home Really Worth?
The market value of your home is important for many reasons, not simply if you are looking to put your house on the market. The value of your house can also influence your annual property tax, the value of a re-mortgage and how much you can borrow against the equity in your home.
One important thing to remember when you try to find out how much your home is worth is that how much you paid for it is irrelevant to the current market value as property prices may have fluctuated to a great extent since you purchased your home.
Getting Estimates
If you want to find out how much your property is worth it is good to get a few estimates from different Realtors. The realtor can produce a free comparable market analysis (CMA) that you can use to give a ballpark figure of how much your house could be worth. The CMA will show the prices of recently sold houses and ones on the market that are similar to yours, giving you a good idea of the value of your home under the current market conditions.
Also of value is a professional appraisal. Although not free like the CMA an appraisal could be money well spent, especially if you want to borrow money against the value of your home. An appraiser uses an in-person inspection of your house, along with current trends and other knowledge to produce a description of your property and their valuation of your property.
If you want to know how much your house may be worth but don't want to have it appraised you could go to an open house near you and see how it compares to yours and talk to other experts. Looking up information online is also a good idea.
