“What is your Home worth?” Home valuation tips for Chicagoland real estate market
So you are looking to sell your home in the Chicago area, and you are wondering how much you can get for it. The first thing that many people resort to are websites like Zillow, who claim to be able to tell you how much your home is worth by simply typing in your address. Websites like these are notorious in the real estate community for getting the price for your home wrong. For example, if you use a few websites to estimate the worth of your home, there will often be a huge difference between prices that each website gives you. Why? Each website has their own valuation system that they use, where they consider many different factors, or their own “formula”. A slight change in that formula can lead to ten thousand dollar difference, if not more! That would leave a lot of money on the table, or greatly overprice your home, if you simply used those websites.
So what is a better way to find out how much your home is worth? The simple answer is to use comparative sales, also known in a lot of real estate circle as comps. Comps are homes in your area that are similar to yours. You look at how much these homes sold for, and you can get a good estimate on how much your home would sell for. Sounds easy right? The harder part is finding out exactly which comps you should use. It is harder to find two homes that perfectly match the size and condition of your home than you would think. Here are some things to look out for to get as close to a match as possible.
Square footage, # of bedrooms & bathrooms
The first things to look at are the number of bedrooms and bathrooms of the home. These are some of the first things buyers look for when choosing a new home, so they can greatly determine the value of a home. You want to match these as close as possible to your home. Square footage is the amount of livable space in the home. The more square footage in the home, the bigger the house. You want to match the square footage as well, because a 1200 sq ft home is not going to sell for as much as a 1700 sq ft home, even if they do have the same number of bedrooms and bathrooms.
Style of home
The style of home is another important factor to consider. Is it a brick home, or does it have aluminum siding, or is it stucco? There are also many different designs of homes around the Chicago area. There are bungalows, cape cod homes, Victorian homes, Georgian style homes, ranch homes, the list goes on. Make sure you pick the home that matches yours the closest.
Condition of the home
The condition of the home is one of the biggest factors that determines the worth of the home. Homes that were recently rehabbed are obviously going to get the most money. Even if you keep your home clean and tidy, it may not sell for as much if your home hasn’t been updated for 15 years. On that same note, you want to be careful and not compare your home to a recently forclosed home with missing pipes either, or risk leaving a lot of money on the table.
Area
When choosing comps, you want to make sure that they are in the same immediate area as your home. Home prices can change greatly with each different suburb down to each different neighborhood in Chicago. Prices in Chicago can change by thousands of dollars depending on which side of the street the home is on! Many people like to choose a home within 1 mile of the target home (including some of the websites), but the estimate will be off if the subject home is within 1 mile of a different neighborhood or subdivision.
These are just some starter tips on how to get started finding out how much your home is worth. There are careers that are dedicated to determining the value of homes, so it is not an easy task. Using the above tips will get you a lot closer to the market value of your home, so you can be better informed as far as your next steps. If you need any help or have any questions, feel free to contact me!