3 Approaches to Home Valuations

Zestimates, Redfin estimates., what your neighbor sold their home for - how do you really know what your home is worth? Leo Cohen overviews three categories of home valuation approaches: 

Zestimates & other large aggregators 

The valuations here are auto-generated and are only as solid as the algorithm that powers them. These systems perform a quantitative market analysis but not a qualitative home analysis that takes construction quality and condition into account. They don’t know about the maintenance status or recent upgrades.

Example: Leo’s home on Westcott St has a Zestimate at $960,000 while the Redfin estimate is at $916,000. Redfin’s ballpark itself has a $100,000 spread, from $898,000 to $989,000.

Assessed value 

The assessed value of your home is shown in the property tax section of the County Assessor site. Leo’s found that this source is often lagging behind market value by around 25% (of course, not in every case) if it hasn’t been assessed recently (note: if the assessed value is lower than the market value, that means that once the assessor office catches up, that property’s taxes will increase). 

Market analysis

Neighborhood analysis based on a radius, but taking into account the subdivision clusters of similar builds in a short range of years. Leo’s home is in a newer neighborhood, with an adjacent neighborhood done by the same builder - so there we have a similar quality of construction and ages of the homes in question. 

Starting at the 8:30 mark, Leo shows the specific process he takes to complete a market analysis, using Northwest MLS data and his own knowledge of the neighborhood:

Each method has a different level of ease and also of accuracy. If you want a casual range, an online aggregator is a great starting point. Once you come to seriously consider selling, it’s important to have a real estate professional research your home’s value range in the context of the current market, and present you with their data, analysis and reasoning from the available comparables. 

Your real estate properties are incredible assets. You deserve to have a clear, rational valuation for them. Reach out to team@cohengroupnw.com for your own personalized home valuation in Whatcom, Skagit, Snohomish and Island Counties.

Written by Tiffany Holden without the aid of any AI. All CGNW blog posts are written by real humans in our own words, based on our real experiences living in Whatcom County.