How accurate are online home value estimates?
They're a starting point, and they're better than nothing, but they're working with a fraction of the information.
An automated estimate works from data it can measure: square footage, lot size, bedroom and bathroom count, and sales of homes it considers comparable. Some of these tools are run by REALTORS® and have real sales history behind them, so the inputs aren't necessarily bad. What none of them have is eyes on your home. It can't see that the kitchen was redone three years ago, or that the basement has never been finished. It can't tell that the roof is near the end of its life, or that the furnace was replaced last spring. It doesn't know whether you back onto green space or a busy road.
It also can't see what else is for sale right now. Your home can be worth noticeably more in a month when two comparable homes are listed than in a month when there are twelve, because in the second case buyers have options and can afford to be choosy. Nothing about your house changed. What changed is what it's up against.
Automated estimates tend to be closest on newer homes in newer communities, where the houses resemble each other and there's steady recent sales data to draw from. They tend to be furthest off on older homes, renovated homes, acreages, and anything unusual.
Treat it as the middle of a wide range, not as an answer.
Your City of Calgary property tax assessment has the same problem and then some. It's valued as of July 1 the year before, and it's built to divide up the tax bill, not to price your home. We go through what the sold-versus-assessed data actually shows on our tax assessment page.
What actually determines what your home sells for?
Three things, and they don't carry equal weight. Most people start with condition, because it's the part they can control. It usually matters less than what your home is up against.
Competition. This is the one that gets underweighted, and it usually matters most. We look closely at absorption rate, which answers a single question: at the pace homes are currently selling, how long would it take to sell every home like yours that's on the market today?
If the answer is a month or two, homes like yours are scarce and buyers have to move quickly. That's leverage, and it shows up in the price. If the answer is closer to a year, buyers can take their time and compare, and your home has to win on price or condition to stand out.
Condition. Not "is it nice," but what a buyer will have to spend after they take possession. A home with an aging roof, original windows, and a furnace near the end of its service life is worth less than the same home with those items done. Buyers price that in whether or not you do.
Comparable sales. What genuinely similar homes actually sold for, not what they were listed at. List prices tell you what sellers hoped for. Sold prices tell you what buyers agreed to. Those can be very different numbers.
Why do two agents give different numbers for the same home?
Sometimes it's an honest difference in judgment. Two experienced people can look at the same home and weigh a dated kitchen or a corner lot differently, and both can be reasonable.
Sometimes it's something else. An agent who wants a listing knows the highest number in the room usually wins it. The home then sits, the price gets reduced, and the seller often ends up taking less than they would have if it had been priced correctly from the start. A listing that's been on the market a long time invites lower offers, because buyers read time on market as a signal that something's wrong.
If you're interviewing agents and one number sits well above the others, ask that person to show you the comparable sales it's based on. Not comparable listings. Sales. If they can't, you have your answer.
We'd rather give you a number you don't love and be right than give you one you like and be wrong.
What's the difference between a quick estimate and a full evaluation?
The quick version is the form below. Give us some basic details about your home and we'll come back to you with recent comparable sales in your area. It's a fair starting point if you're just curious, and it costs you a minute.
The full version is one of us coming to see the home. We walk through it, note the condition of the things buyers actually price in, and pull the absorption numbers for both your community and your price point. Between us, Colin and Brad have toured and sold thousands of homes, and most of what we can tell you about yours comes from having stood in a few thousand others.
Walking through also lets us tell you something a number can't: what's worth doing before you list, and what isn't. Sometimes the honest answer is nothing at all.
Does a home evaluation cost anything?
No, and there's no obligation attached to it. We're not going to add you to an automated email list and call every few months to ask whether you're ready yet.
Over 90% of our business comes from repeat clients and their referrals. That only works if we're straight with you now, including the times when the honest answer is that this isn't a good moment to sell. An agent who needs this one transaction has a reason to tell you what you want to hear. We'd rather you call us again in six years.
Should I get an evaluation if I'm not planning to sell yet?
Plenty of people do. Knowing what your home is worth is useful well before you list: for working out whether a renovation makes financial sense, for planning a move up or down, for a refinancing conversation, or just for knowing where you stand.
If you're a year or more out, the full walkthrough is still the better version, because the most useful part isn't the number. It's finding out which items on your list are worth doing before you sell, and which ones you won't get your money back on.
If you want a number that accounts for your home's actual condition and what's really happening in your market, call, text, or email either of us and we'll come take a look. No cost, no obligation. Colin is at 403-630-1110 (colinkehler@remax.net) and Brad is at 403-990-5543 (bradhealey@remax.net). We cover exactly how this works on our Selling page.
Or if you'd rather start with the quick version, the form's right below...