What Is My House Worth Now? – House Flip Central

My house value is a common question for the home owner as well as the real estate investor. Many investors tend to get the pricing incorrect and this directly affects the profit at sale time. Homeowners would like to get the maximum fair value for their property. For any property transaction, calculating the comparable value of a property is very valuable to both the buyer and seller.

How can I find out what my house is worth? Search for comparable houses in the neighborhood that have sold in the last 90-180 days and compare the number of bathrooms, bedrooms and square footage and use the price range as a start point. Then break down details and price them by addition, square footage or amenity.

Normally when shopping for a product we will compare the price, size and value of other products first before deciding to buy 1 of them. Pricing a home is similar as the average buyer will compare other homes with the number of bedrooms, bathrooms, square footage and the price with other homes they look at. There are more ways to calculate an accurate value to your home as well as online resources.

Use The County Records To Find Property

Recorders Office (Auditor)

The recorders office is responsible for keeping track of the public records and documents, especially records relating to real estate ownership. Some counties require the property sale record to include the price the home was sold for but others do not require it. Counties may have the information online in a searchable database and this can be a source for the price the home last sold for.

Unfortunately these records are usually much older and it is hard to use this information to accurately price the house.

Tax Assessor Office

A source of property value is the tax assessors office. They decide what is the value of the property is so they can calculate the taxes. Most home owners will not detail out every little item or addition like they would to a potential buyer because it will cost them more taxes if they did. The tax value tends to lag behind the actual market value of the property.

Where Can I Find Houses Using Online Services?

Internet services offer a quick and free method to compare and price a house without contacting a real estate agent. The following websites provide some pricing info but I have found that most professionals will tell people to avoid using this pricing or estimates as they are usually wildly incorrect. I provide the list here because we will use this for comparing sold houses and searching and viewing details more easily.

Can I Use The Multiple Listing Service (MLS)?

The MLS requires a real estate license to access but is considered by the successful real estate investor as the most accurate information on a property. The reason is because the MLS has the most up to date digital record for each property and the agents are responsible for updating it as they provide their services. As an example, if an agent is showing a house and the square footage is wrong or the number of bathrooms is less than stated, the agent is required to make the changes to the MLS or face possible fines.

The wise investor will usually network with more than 1 real estate agent to gain access or have them send opportunities. Even with a real estate agent it is good to be cautious and do your own homework. Some agents will post the house at any price you offer just to get the listing, then suggest reducing it later. Even with the MLS and an agent there needs to be some work done to reveal an accurate price for your project.

Comparative Market Analysis (CMA)

For the home owner a little work can reveal a more accurate price when its time to sell. Understanding the local market, price per square foot and an idea on comparable valuations can provide some negotiating tools. The CMA is where we collect details on houses in the neighborhood that are comparable to yours and use their recently sold value to calculate a price.

For the investor or house flipper, this analysis is necessary because most of the profit is in the purchase of the house not necessarily the sale. The CMA should be completed for every property a flipper is looking at to get an idea on the final price it may sell for.

What is Comparative Market Analysis (CMA)?

The CMA is where we match a property to comparable properties and create a price breakdown of what house might be worth. The similar properties nearby will not match every square foot or detail but we can choose features and price them out in order to compare values. This process is usually used for single family homes and 1-4 unit apartments.

If there are plenty of other similar homes in the area, its easier to estimate the price as we can just compare on the square footage level and break it done.

What to compare between houses?

Type of home: Split level, Ranch, Bungalo, Duplex etc.
Age of the Home
Square Footage
Number of Bedrooms
Number of Bathrooms
Lot size in square foot
Garage Size in square foot (1 or 2 car)
Amenities: Pool, Backyard Patio, pond, etc.
Target houses that have sold in the last 90-180 days
De-listed, relisted or price reduced recently
Same neighborhood

We can use one of the online sites to provide a rough estimate such as zillow.com. Using the search feature we can change the filter to only list the houses that have SOLD in the last 6 months or 180 days along with the criteria in the above list.

Show Me A CMA Example

With so many differences in the surrounding property, we look for the recently sold houses that are the same type and close to the same square footage. For this example I created a spreadsheet of addresses and used the average numbers to get a rough price. This example does not include any amenities or breaking down appliance costs or patio and pools.

I used zillow.com for this example but most of the other sites will do. There is a nice feature when you look up the house, or your house, on the right side of the page there is a section called “Nearby Similar Sales”. Click the “See sales similar to…” to get a list of similar houses in the area. We are looking for houses sold in the last 6 months that are the same type and similar square footage.

I found 6 houses similar to mine in the area. Then I documented the average of their square footage and the average of their value per square foot. I ignored the lot square footage because they were all close to mine, within a few 100 sq feet.

Similar homes recently sold: 6
Average square footage: 1130
Avg Square Value: $113/sq ft

My house has 1074 square feet so I applied the average value to get a rough price for my home.

1074 sq. feet x $113/sq foot = $121,362

The other houses were closely priced around $3-5,000 different so I think this number is a good reference to the value of the house. Just as a test I also tried adding up the total sale price of the houses and then divide by the number of properties to get the mean price.

6 Property mean price: $124,900

At this point I have 2 numbers that are around $4000 from each other and I think this will be where I can start to estimate a final price based on more property and amenity details.

A final suggestion is to visit the property and look at the comparable items. It helps to see the neighborhood and the houses we are comparing digital in real life.

What Is The Home Appraisal?

The professional home appraisal will conduct an appraisal of the property and can provide a copy of their report when the assessment is complete. The appraisal will include a market analysis as well as data they collect from walking through the property. An appraisal can be costly running around $300 – $500 but the documentation is the most accurate and can provide a number and documentation to back it up. Be sure to request a copy of the report when complete.