What is the current value of my home?
If you are purchasing a property it is important to know what value of the property is your planning on making an offer on. A market estimate along with the asking price will help you to decide on an appropriate starting bid. Depending on market conditions the asking price may get bid up in tight markets. Keep in mind that the mortgage amount to be loaned will be based on the appraised value not the purchase price. If the purchase price is equal or less than the appraised value your good. If it is more than the appraised value you may have to put more down to cover the difference between the purchase price and the appraised value.
If you are selling a property usually a realtor will provide comparable sale prices in the neighborhood to help set an asking price. Keep in mind that realtors make money listing a property and get a commission if they sell the property, the listing broker will get a sales commission no matter who sales the property. You will ultimately decide what the asking price will be. If the price is too high you will know because it will not receive any offers.
The property value estimate tool is a good starting point for an estimate, however when taking out a mortgage on the property the lending institution will perform an appraisal too. They may look at comparable sales in the over recent period of time and they may also have a property appraiser look at the property and work up an estimate.
Use the following tool to give you a ball-park estimated value of you property, however this estimate can be off in either direction. The following is a quote directly from Zillow “The Zestimate® home value is Zillow’s estimated market value for an individual home and is calculated for about 100 million homes nationwide. It is a starting point in determining a home’s value and is not an official appraisal. The Zestimate is automatically computed three times per week based on millions of public and user-submitted data points.”