Pricing Your Home in Greater Cleveland
How Much Is My Home Worth?
The most common reason you’d ask this question is if you’re looking to sell your home. Whether you want to upsize or downsize as your family grows or the kids move out, are moving out of state, getting divorced and need to sell your family home, inherited a property from a long-lost relative, are tired of being a landlord, no matter the reason, you’ll need to know approximately what your property is worth.
Typically, an experienced real estate agent can make an accurate estimate of your home's market value. Realtors are also usually willing to give homeowners an idea of what they would list the home for without entering into a listing agreement. If you are thinking about selling your home without using a real estate agent to save on commission, or double-checking a realtor’s assessment, you will need to figure out approximately what your property is worth on your own. Here are some helpful tips for getting to that number.
It Isn’t Just One Number
As a homeowner, you might be aware of the assessed value of your home. This is the value of your home as assessed by your county for calculating your property taxes. If this value isn’t stated on your property tax bill, you can go down to the County offices and ask them for it. Bear in mind, that the assessed value is only a percentage of the fair market value of your home and might be a few years old as some counties only do assessments every 5 or 10 years. For example, Cuyahoga County and Summit County in Ohio reappraise properties every six years and update their appraisals every three years.
While this is a useful place to start, what you really want to know is…
The Market Value of Your Home
At its core, market value is the generally agreed-upon value of a thing, such as a house. The market value of your home will lie somewhere between what you as a seller would like to get for your home and what buyers are willing to pay.
Doing some research online can give you some clues as to the market value of your house. For example, you could look at websites like Zillow, Redfin, or Realtor.com that claim to tell you the market value of your home in just a few clicks.
However, these values are not always accurate. These websites use algorithms to calculate the value of your home by comparing it to other houses with the same square footage or features, asking prices of homes, and recent sales prices. Sure, it’s a number based on data, but these websites can’t tell the difference between a 3-bedroom house in perfect condition, and one that is run-down, a house on a high-traffic street or a quiet cul-de-sac, or whether the house is zoned for one school district or another.
The truth is that many factors will affect the value of your home in the eyes of potential buyers. You’ll need to dig a little deeper!
Getting Closer To Your Home’s Worth
So once you’ve looked up what these websites tell you is the market value of your home, you need to refine this number by looking at “comps”. Comparable homes are homes in your immediate area, and similar to yours in terms of condition, location, and desirability. Change the filters on the website from “for sale” to “sold” to see what comparable houses actually sold for. While looking at the last three months of comps is usually a good rule of thumb, in the current market where home prices appear to be declining rapidly, sellers should focus on the most recent sold comps. Note that most properties sold on the market are in decent condition, meaning they don’t need significant repairs to be habitable. If you want to sell a house that is in disrepair or has been neglected, consider how much it would cost to get your house to the condition of the most similar comps.
In the Greater Cleveland area, school districts are an important consideration. Buyers are often willing to pay more for property in school districts they consider desirable or well-ranked. If your property is on the border of your city, make sure you are looking at comps in your school district. Don’t rely on Zillow/Redfin/Realtor.com to ascertain your school district. Your county auditor’s website will list your property’s school district:
Cuyahoga County, OH Auditor: https://myplace.cuyahogacounty.us/
Summit County, OH Auditor: https://fiscaloffice.summitoh.net/index.php/property-tax-search
Portage County, OH Auditor: https://portageoh-auditor-classic.ddti.net/Search.aspx
It can be more difficult to value your property if there haven’t been a lot of recent sales in your neighborhood. You might have to go further back in time or look in a wider area. If you do broaden your search, bear in mind that the accuracy of the comps will decrease. Spend some time hunting around the internet, look on more than one website, and you’ll start to get a clearer idea of what your home might be worth.
LP Property Group buys houses directly from sellers like you! By selling to us, you can avoid using a realtor and save a lot of money in commissions and closing costs.
Get in touch with us here.
Disclaimer: The above is solely intended for informational purposes and in no way constitutes legal advice or specific recommendations.