What is My Home Worth?

One of the first things that potential home sellers want to know is “What is my home worth right now?”  There are only two ways for you to know for sure.  The first is to pay for an appraisal.  The second is to contact a qualified Real Estate Agent.  We can perform what is known as a Competitive Market Analysis of your property.   This will tell you the market value range.  In other words, the price range within which your home should sell if we were to market it for sale.  This is based on the sales of similar homes in your neighborhood.

The licensed real estate agents at DMS Properties, LLC Residential Real Estate Services have performed many of these.  We have provided a market analysis to the owners of over 1,750 Maryland homes.  Those properties have a combined market value of over $500 million.  Many of these were directly for lenders in the form of a Broker Price Opinion (BPO). 

There are three reasons that we know of why a lender would request a BPO on a property:

(1) the property owner is trying to re-finance their mortgage and the bank needs to know the value will support the loan,

(2) the property owner is trying to complete a loan modification with their lender and the bank needs to know the value, or

(3) the property is working its way through the foreclosure process or will be sold as a short sale and the bank is trying to determine how to proceed.  We have sold many foreclosure (REO) properties and short sale properties and have a good understanding of the process.

If you are thinking about refinancing your home or requesting a loan modification from your bank, you should know the market value of your home, too!

ONLY A REAL ESTATE AGENT CAN PERFORM A MARKET ANALYSIS AND
GIVE YOU AN ACCURATE PRICE VALUE RANGE FOR YOUR HOME

There are some web sites that claim to be able to perform this service for you.  They will ask you to plug in some basic information.  When you do, they will tell you IMMEDIATELY what your house is worth.  Don’t believe them!  Under the Code of Ethics for the Maryland Real Estate Commission (MREC), a valid Market Analysis can only be done by a licensed Real Estate Agent.  We will review the comparable properties AND do an thorough review of your property.  Any Market Analysis that you receive from a Real Estate Agent licensed in Maryland should contain the following disclosure:

THIS ANALYSIS IS NOT AN APPRAISAL. IT IS INTENDED ONLY
FOR THE PURPOSE OF ASSISTING BUYERS OR SELLERS
OR PROSPECTIVE BUYERS OR SELLERS IN DECIDING THE
LISTING, OFFERING, OR SALE PRICE OF REAL PROPERTY

If you decide to ultimately sell your property, Real Estate Agents are not permitted to tell you what asking price to choose.  That is YOUR decision.  No real estate agent should make decisions for clients.  The best that we can do is provide you with the market value range so that you can make the right decision for your individual situation.  The bottom line, though, is that home that are priced too high simply don’t sell.  In fact, if a home is priced too high, people don’t even come to look at it!

If you would like to know the market value range of your home, we can provide that information for you.  To start the process, you should Complete the Market Analysis Form.  We will gladly perform a “preliminary Market Analysis” for your property.  This will tell you what you can reasonably expect your home to sell for in an arms-length transaction.  The next step would be for us to visit your home to see your home.  This will allow us to examine every room so that we can make any adjustments to the Market Analysis based on specific features.  This is probably not necessary until you are actually ready to put your home on the market.

There is never any cost or obligation for this service.  Obviously, though, we hope that you will contact us at some point in the future when you decide to sell your home.  Even if you don’t, though, we will give you the numbers. 

To summarize all of this, a Market Analysis can be used for many purposes.  Obviously, the main reason you would want one is so that you can decide on the asking price for your property.  Another reason for determining the value of a property is for a property settlement agreement in the case of a divorce or for estate purposes.  A third reason is for thinking about a refinance or a home equity line of credit.  In most cases, the lender will want to perform an appraisal to find out the home’s exact value so that they can make the loan.  A current Market Analysis can help you make your plans.