Putting a house up for sale is one of the most significant decisions a homeowner would ever make. Arriving at the most reasonable bid price helps influence potential buyers and ensures the right selling price is set  up  based on the latest market standards. Further, the answer to the biggest question, ‘How much is my house worth?’  lies in  determining the home’s true market value. For evaluating property worth, sellers should consider some important approaches.

How to explore the market value of a house
One must follow certain steps to assess the right worth for their house. The first step in this direction is to find out property rates in one’s area.

In the next step, owners can typically list similar properties but those that were sold in the past six months. One should consider certain aspects when surveying sold houses – nearby location, houses with similar sizes, ones that were built around the same time, and homes that have similar characteristics and ambience as the seller’s home.

Further, it’s essential to conduct extensive research on online platforms. Look for ‘recently sold listings’ along with ‘present-day active listings’ on popular real estate agency sites.

In the next step, it is advisable to meet prospective real estate agents who hold first-hand knowledge about listed properties. Sit with them through sessions to discuss comparable sale values, and with this, one could easily arrive at an estimate value for one’s house. Alternatively, if owners are not comfortable approaching real estate agents, they could visit the Land Registry office, where sold price information of recent and old properties is provided upon request.

In the last step, it is time to do some homework. One should compare comps and retrieve data that matches closely, above or below, and well analyse the information. Keeping all other factors in mind, homeowners should prepare three to five closely matching comps for reference and begin to set a value range for their house upon these findings.

Factors to consider while assessing the market value of a house
While various factors are taken into consideration while evaluating a house worth, proper analysis of comps can add value to the assessment. To decide the worth of any house, considering these factors is significant – location, size, present condition, and built-in characteristics. Valuation based on these metrics is considered technically correct, provided one doesn’t overlook the following factors.

• The present state of the market
  Conduct a local market survey to determine the valuation of houses in one’s local permit. Probe into as many houses as possible to help set the right value.
• Valuation estimator inputs
  The local real estate estimator could easily give information on the latest trends in buying, expertise in market evaluation, and demands from prospective buyers.
• Estimation of both high and low prices
  Property insights should be fairly measured by both high-valued houses and low-sold houses to get a clear market picture in the current scenario.
• Various evaluation techniques
  A real estate agent would help one with techniques like Comparative Market Analysis, Income and Cost approaches, and Appraisal systems to support the home evaluation. If one is searching for, ‘What is the market value of my house’ and wants to check the estimate instantly, one can use an online home value estimator tool.
• Derivation of a strategic listing price
  Market value and pricing are two basic components of professional valuation and strategic pricing is what one should expect as the ultimate outcome.

Tips for evaluating a house worth
The answer to, ‘What is my house worth right now?’ lies in following best practices to perform house valuation. One should follow some key tips to estimate the market value of their house.

• Pool in multiple corresponding deals
  The real estate market is not an all-time high dealership platform but one with a comparable ratio of high buys, slowing down sales, and pricing metrics. All these points influence house evaluation.
• Look at high and low comp rates
  Certified surveyors help individuals price their property against high and low comp rates with physical and legal comparable entities.
• Choose house enhancements wisely
  Investing in fixtures and cosmetically improving the aesthetics of the space may not always lead to a premium valuation in the market. It’s best to renovate one’s home carefully and within one’s budget.
• Validate structural virtue
  Consider the impact of local factors like accessibility to amenities and share a thought about infrastructure development to estimate the house worth.
• Enhance the house’s appeal
  The inclusion of smart features and remodelling outdated features can help increase the market value of the home.
• Avoid overdoing renovation
  Overdoing renovation activities and upsizing maintenance tasks beyond what is necessary may not draw a premium evaluation for one’s house.
• Keep the future in mind
  Land rates could see uphill forecasts or could go down the road during unseasonal times. Keep one’s insights in place for achieving a fair market evaluation of the house.

While starting out, firmly set an ideal target price around which one could work to come up with the final market evaluation. Doing good background research with respect to daily average listings on real estate sites and statistics from local housing corporations adds significant value to one’s home valuation journey. Maintain a report of all the upsizing and downsizing costs incurred in the recent past. Further, monitor local market conditions and take expert advice from property consultants to get the right market valuation for the house.