A quick search on the internet will convince you it’s easy to determine what your home is worth. Websites like Zillow even tell you without much prompting their guess for the value of your house. 

Home Value Estimators are found on real estate websites as frequently as mortgage calculators and pop-ups asking you to accept cookies. Are they accurate? Can you trust the algorithm-based numbers the calculator spits out? 

The answer is largely, no. The reason is no computer can possibly know the good, bad, and ugly about any given property. All the online estimators do is solve a math problem based on a few variables. For example, your home might be a 3 bedroom, 3 bath with a partial basement and a big backyard. All the online estimator can do is compare your home to others around it that are similar and generate an average based on sales prices.

Your realtor will also do this, he will pull what is referred to as “comps”. The difference between your realtor and the machine learning of a piece of software is experience and eyeballs. 

Your realtor will help you set the asking price for your home based on comps but also based on seeing your house and taking into consideration factors that could increase or decrease the value. Your home may have a brand new roof and a recently remodeled kitchen. Your home, though only a mile away from a similar home could be a less desirable school district. Your home might have a fenced-in yard, or it could have a water view. These are factors that an online estimator can’t know. 

Trust your realtor to help you decide your asking price. He has so much experience weighing the importance of remodels, school districts, ease of access to major highways, finished basements, or nice outbuildings. The last thing you want to do is sell your home short or base your next home purchase on a profit you may not be able to achieve. 

Back away from the online value estimator and pick up the phone and call your favorite Sun Realty Group agent to discuss your home’s value.