What’s My Property Worth?Are you thinking of selling your home? Today’s market makes home selling challenging at best. Jobless rates today are at or near all-time highs which has impacted just about everything, including home values. Selling your home in the midst of these current economic circumstances without a good strategy often results in unmet expectations.

What’s My Property Worth? Answer incorrectly and it could impact not only finding a buyer but getting the best possible price. This whitepaper is intended to help you arrive at the correct answer and help you gain peace of mind on the steps you should take if you’re selling your home.

The optimum time to find a buyer is when a property is initially listed and on the market with a reputable real estate professional. Properties that have been on the market for many months or even longer risk losing property value and are less likely to be sold without a sacrifice in price based on current market conditions. Following are 5 things you should observe that will help you determine what your property is really worth.

1. Get the right dataThe first step you should take in determining the value of your home is to get the most recent sales and listing data of what is happening in your

immediate as well as adjacent neighborhoods. This information is commonly referred to by real estate professionals as a Comparative Market Analysis. It is produced from data obtained from the local Multiple Listing Services or other verifiable sources such as title companies or property managers.

2. Interpret the data correctlyGetting the right data is only half of the puzzle. The other half, which is probably most important, is knowing what to do with the sales data. A real estate professional will take sales data and consider several factors to produce an apples-to-apples comparison of your home with other sales in the neighborhood. When properly assessed with the most recent sales in your neighborhood or nearby competing neighborhoods, those factors will produce an estimated range of values. Somewhere within that range is the estimated value of your property.

The factors used to get to apples-to-apples comparison are:

- Date of sale- Financing concessions- Location- Days on market- Age of property- Design and Appeal- Condition- Living area (square feet)- Number of rooms, bedrooms, bathrooms- Energy efficiency- Improvements (pool, patio, fence, etc.)- Garage

3. Know the rulesFinding a real estate professional who will list your property at the highest possible price is not the answer. Finding the real estate professional who will provide you with a defensible estimate of value is the answer. Today real estate appraisers and mortgage lenders follow

strict guidelines established by FannieMae (FNMA) and FreddieMac when it comes to financing the purchase of your property. Therefore it pays to know some of those rules and understand the advice given by a professional real estate agent who understands what can derail a sale. Following are some rules that the lender and appraiser must follow when it comes to financing the sale of your property:

- The appraiser must use comparable sales that are most similar to your property that have sold within the last six months. If there are no sales the appraiser may use sales up to one year old. - The appraiser must use sales in the immediate neighborhood if they are available. They cannot go outside of the neighborhood boundaries just to find higher priced sales.- The appraiser’s adjustments based on the factors mentioned in #2 may not exceed 15% net adjustments for any one factor and they may not exceed 25% gross for total adjustments. This means the appraiser must use sales that are similar, not sales that will bring you a better adjusted price to increase your value.

The bottom line is, a real estate professional who knows the rules and guidelines well can help you avoid the pain of not selling your home.

4. Know who’s got your backA professional real estate agent will always do what’s right. If the value determined is not what you had in mind, ask your professional real estate agent to refer a licensed professional real estate appraiser who can provide you with an independent opinion of value. Yes, this is an extra fee but if there are questions regarding the opinion of value, it is a wise decision. The fact is, no lender is going to make a loan for more than the appraised value. Therefore it make sense to go this route, especially if there is uncertainty due to lack of sales in the area, high adjustments based on the factors in #2, or it’s a very unique property with no comparable sales.

5. Begin and end with the right strategyBefore listing make sure you obtain a defensible estimate of value. Be confident that you understand how that value was derived and that it makes sense to you. Know what is happening in your neighborhood with regards to listings on the market, sales within the last year, average days on market and seller concessions. With that in mind, know what it will take to sell your home and go in prepared and with confidence that you’ve done your homework.

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