How To Find Your Home's Fair Market Value

By Matt Baumberger


The fair market value is how much a home will fetch on the market. These two variables can effect the FMV:

Potential buyers and sellers are acting in their best interest under no pressure and know the property well. There must be efficient time to process the transaction.

If these circumstances remain, the FMV should be close to what the property is actually worth. When the property is involved in a divorce, when eminent domain is being exercised or an estate settlement this becomes extremely important. It's very important for the owner of the home to know the home's fair market value because it helps them to know the actual value of the property and ensures they won't be taken.

There are multiple ways of determining the FMV of a home. Below are the necessary steps to conduct an analysis of your properties value.

This first step you want to take is finding out what the other homes that are similar to your's sold for in your area, these are called comps. You should also look for homes that are currently listed like your's by asking a real estate agent to look on the MLS or by using websites like Zillow.com or realtor.com.

After finding the comps, hire an appraiser to appraise your home. Have the appraiser inspect your home from top to bottom. They will look closely at any renovations or upgrades, structural construction of the home and its general condition. Finding their own comps is also a responsibility of the appraiser. The properties renovations and condition will be compared to similar homes in the surrounding areas. The value that is determined by the appraiser will be very close to the property's actual worth.

Determine how much it would cost to replace your property. this is done by finding out how much your land is worth and the full replacement of the actual house itself. This will include the cost of labor and materials. This technique is handy when there is not enough data to collect accurate comps in the area. It'll bring you very close to the homes fair market value.

Knowing the FMV is important to avoid being taken advantage of when putting your home on the open market. The properties fair market value can be easily determined using these steps.




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