What does it mean to protect the value of your land and home, exactly? This protection lies in the awareness of how much your whole property is worth, so you don’t get tricked in the world of real estate business. Only after you’ve determined this value you’ll be able to price your property properly, see if that the listing is priced accordingly, and evaluate what you can afford.
But the benefits of this protection don’t end with a sale or purchase – finding the right value also helps you with annual property taxes, insurance premiums, home equity lines of credit, and refinances. For example, property taxes are usually open to appeal, which means you can be awarded a lower tax bill if you can prove an assessment is too high by pulling comparisons.
In other words, the protection lies in the complete control over these processes, and we’re about to show you how to achieve it.
How to Determine This Value?
The problem with this value is that it’s similar to that famous adage about beauty – it’s in the eye of the beholder. In other words, the property is worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it. Depending on the purpose of the evaluation, different professionals will reach different numbers, and all of them will be correct from their point of view. That’s why you shouldn’t take the word of tax assessors, lenders, or agents for granted if you really want to be protected – you need to calculate the value yourself based on the market and other factors. Many owners turn to online tools to determine the value of a property since they’re combining mathematical modeling with public records such as tax assessments, deeds of ownership, and property transfers. This makes them perfectly able to predict the value of your land and home based on listing prices in the area and recent sales history. Nevertheless, you should also explore other methods to enrich this online valuation with further insight.
Comparative Market Analysis or Appraisal
If you want to dive deeper into the value of your property, you can ask for a comparative marketing analysis from a local real estate agent. This is usually done for listing purposes, and it’s a study of the properties within close proximity and the neighborhood. The analysis covers a wide range of factors – upgrades that have been made to a property, the land which surrounds it, the condition of the home, the number of baths and bedrooms, square footage, etc. Afterward, your property is compared to other similar ones nearby which have been sold, and with the prices they’ve generated. All this information leads to an estimated property value and provides you with a general idea of the price you can expect if the market is stable. Local real estate agents are usually willing to provide this analysis for little or no cost, but maybe with hopes of being hired as selling agents.
If you want to go into even more detail, you can hire a professional appraiser to estimate the value of your property. Their evaluation covers a much wider range – not only the neighborhood but also the city and the region, more in-depth characteristics of the property, and many other factors for comparable properties such as depreciation and vacancies. All this information is combined for a final opinion of the value which you receive as an official report.
Other Factors
Keep in mind that other factors can also influence the value of your property – such as community and economic ones. You need to be aware of what’s going on in the community – if there are any scheduled constructions, the values will likely dip lower. On the other hand, if the school district is suddenly noted for its excellence, it will push the value up. As far as economic factors are concerned, be sure to check the mortgage market – the rise of interest rates means a decrease in value. Also, pay attention to whether new companies are moving in and if employment is looking bright for the immediate future since this is what will also contribute to increase the value.
What you need to do to protect the value of your land and your home depends on your knowledge and your will to research the same. If you already have some knowledge and information about external factors, online comparison tools should be enough. You can always boost their results with comparative market analysis, but the professional appraisal is not mandatory unless you want to have it done officially.
