How Much is My Champaign-Urbana IL Home Worth?

How Much is My Champaign-Urbana IL Home Worth?

When we created this website, we knew that the “how much is my home worth” question was one we would need to address. Pricing your home when putting it on the market can be the deciding factor of how quickly your home sells, if at all.

We considered adding one of those little widgets you’ll find on many other real estate websites where you simply input your address and BAM! A little (or, in some cases, big) number pops out and that’s the supposed estimate of your home’s value.

Here’s the thing: it’s a load of doo doo. These “home value estimators” are very misleading and, in fact, the values are often inaccurate by tens of thousands of dollars in either direction.

These “estimators” draw their information from a variety of sources such as a tax assessor’s website, nearby home sales (regardless of the homes’ similarities or lack thereof), and other public records. These “home value estimates” do NOT take into consideration the subject home’s size, condition, upgrades, number of bedrooms or bathrooms, type of architecture, age, location in reference to major streets or amenities, etc. etc. If you are going to price a home properly to put it on the market, ALL of the above must be considered.

Determining the value of your home is both an art and a science.

The science part is very straightforward, though not necessarily simple: take homes that are similar to the subject home that have sold in the past 3 months (sometimes you have to go back 6 months or even more) and adjust the prices based on the differences. For instance, if the subject home has 1 bath and a comparable home has 2 baths, then you would need to lower the sold price by, let’s say, several thousand dollars to determine a reasonable value for the subject home. This is usually what an appraiser does to reach a value for a home.

However, the process of reaching a price for your home which will result in a speedy and successful sale is absolutely an art. What this means is that even though a bathroom may be installed in your home for only $5,000, if all the other homes for sale in that neighborhood already have 2 bathrooms, then a buyer may perceive the value of a bathroom as being much greater than $5,000. You may have to deduct $10,000 or even $15,000 from your list price to compete with the other homes. It all depends on the individual situation.

If pricing your home for the market (or for any other reason) is something you need assistance with, just give us a call or send us an email to setup an appointment. Our home value analysis is extremely thorough. In addition to sold homes, we also take into consideration homes currently on the market, pending sales, and homes with expired listings. Our home value analysis will be a great start to the successful sale of your Champaign-Urbana IL home.