You may come across automated home valuation websites when searching for property information online. As a home buyer or home seller, you may end up comparing the results to the marketing price of a property. It is extremely critical that you fully understand how they work before doing so.
How Automated Home Estimates are Determined
Automated home valuation websites often extract facts from public sources. This includes basic information such as square footage, bedrooms, and home age. Information is entered into a database and run against particular formulas to compute the value of a house.
Public Record Limitations
Unfortunately, publicly available information is not often comprehensive. Many times the information can be really old. It may not incorporate any improvements. Also, it does not list items that may directly influence property values, such as the quality of appliances and fixtures.
Reliability of Automated Home Valuation Websites
Given that the information used by automated home valuation websites is limited, it will naturally be prone to error. Most websites disclose a margin of error somewhere. Keep in mind, the realized error could be much more for some houses.
Why You Should Not Rely on Automated Home Valuation Websites
As a home seller or buyer, solely referring to automated home valuation websites could be a huge mistake. When selling real estate, you may set the wrong starting price and waste valuable time. As a buyer, you could upset a seller and miss out on your dream home by coming in too low on price. An accurate price range requires an experienced professional reviewing comprehensive information from more than one source and comparing a home to similar sold listings. This is where your real estate professional comes in. When pricing a home to sell quickly, he/she can provide a report that returns a particular price range. On the buying side, your agent can advise you on a fair price that gives you the best chance of success, especially in multiple offer scenarios. Keep the MA automated home valuation websites reliability above in mind when browsing the web and consult with a local real estate agent for the most accurate information.