Determining the Current Market Value

Zillow is a decent enough starting place. yahoo has something similar.

I end up asking my realtor. I only care what she can sell it for anyway.

I'll try Yahoo and compare the 2. Does anyone know what the Appraiser's and Lender's Underwriters use to determine this?

I've included a list of sites that I use or have used:

www.zillow.com (as previously mentioned)
www.cyberhomes.com
www.eppraisal.com
www.ziprealty.com/sell_my_house/tools.jsp
www.realquest.com (I pay for thiis one)

For a quick search, I compare zillow and cyberhomes. For more details, I also use realquest. I'm usually right on or very close to the comps my Realtor provides me with.

Hope this helps.

Here are links for a couple sites where you can do value checks. Zillow is pretty low compared to www.realtor.com so I guess going off Zillow works in your favor if your buying.

http://realestate.****/Homevalues

www.zillow.com

http://www.eppraisal.com/

http://www.realestateabc.com/home-values/

http://www.realtor.com/homevalues/?lat=37.78808138412046&lon=-93.8671875...

Appraiser's use MLS to get a description of the property's condition, amenities, seller concessions, and additions to the property that may or may not have been permitted. They'll also contact the listing and selling agents to get an opinion of condion and/or quality and extent of the remodel if the property had been remodeled. Closing dates, prices, and seller concessions are verified through title companies and/or public records. The appraiser will then make adjustments for things like location, condition, livable square footage, and amenities.

I guess going off of Zillow isn't too bad.

I should have asked is where do Appraiser's find there Comps(comparables?) But thats still good to know thanks deanhale.

It all breaks down to "sold" properties which are typically part of the tax records. (But not in TX I dont believe).

Hello everyone! This is my very first post! I have a question about investing in real estate in Texas. I understand that Texas has a non-disclosure law as wmark1963 was mentioning. Is this true? And if it is true, is there any way to find what prices properties have sold for other than a using Real Estate Agent?

instructorpilot2001 there are quite a few states that do not disclose their sales data to the general public, however, if you go into or online to access the courthouse land records department, you might consider searching for mortgage, deed of trust or trust deed docs on some proeprties surrounding your prospect property. It is not a really true number or value persay, but it does give you an idea of what they may have bought it at that time. Obviously, you want to focus on properties that have sold in the last 3 months preferably, you can ask the naighbors or seller for that information. I would not go past 6 months especially in this market.

Another note.....eventhough you may not want to deal with real estate agents, in this market they are one of the best sources for "true" comps. They have access to the MLS and the latest and greatest information about homes sales in the area. In this market, many of the online home valuation websites are mere general guides of value and in a few areas not even close. One other thing to note is that some of those sites will give you actively listed for sale properties instead of actually sold properties. The comparables they choose may not be true comps due to location differences (few comps to pull maybe), square feet, number of bedrooms, acreage, age, etc. A real estate agent can adjust in a lot of ways for these differences and give you a more accurate picture of real FMV.

Keep in mind, our market is in flux, we need to have the best and most accurate information we can to make the best decisions we can on determining value and making offers that make a profit and not get us in trouble.

I hope this helps some. Good luck and I wish you success.
Dawn

Hi my name is Chad and I think I may be able to help a little with the CMA question. I am R.E. agent in Maryland and do many CMA's. They are a very good way to get an accurate assessment of a subject properties market value.
I recommend using your real estate agents for this as much as possible. They are receiving commissions each time you purchase a property, so why not get their help.
I am sure everyone has their own way of doing them, but ask for the completed CMA when they finish preparing it. That way you get more famaliar with what they look at.
When working on CMA's, please make sure that you or your agents are only using Sold properties as comp's. With properties that are active or under contract, you won't know if they accepted a lower price than list or if they offered seller help.
When I work on mine, I take the seller subsidies (seller's credits to buyer) into account to figure the net sales price.
I hope this helps. Good luck.
Chad

Rich2000,
Zillow is NOT always Accurate, I Believe the BEST way to figure out a properties ARV is to use Recent Comparables(Retail Comps), You can pull Recent COMP's off of Zillow and also www.Realestateabc.com, I usually never use any Comp's that are older than 5-6 months old(Not in this Market Anyway). I also find it Helpful to see what properties in the SAME Area are being Listed for, You can find this Information on www.Realtor.com, I hope this will give you a better understanding of how to Accuratley COMP a property, SULLY

Here's the response I got from Kbarnes.
Credit to kris barnes.

Hey Jason, In order to get the fair market value, I would suggest getting comps of homes that SOLD (not active listings) with in these criterias:
1) 3-6-12 months ago (the earlier the better)
2) similar interior: same size (sq ft), beds and baths (at least close to it)3) structural design
4) acreage
5) age
6) with in a 1 mile (but no more than 1.5 away) What you do is go to websites like www.zillow.com, as well as another site like zillow, and also ask an agent for MLS (mls is most accurate) comps that are the same as your target property, that have SOLD (not active listings, of course with websites those will be active listings, but you can still use them and I'll show you how in a sec) in the last 3-6-12 months. Take 6-10 properties that fit the above criteria from each place (zillow, another website, and mls) and for each category take those prices and do this for all 6-10 properties:
1. Take the comp price and divide it by the total square feet of that home. The result is the cost per square feet.
2. Perform this calc for ALL your comps
3. Next, discard the highest and the lowest value. (If you only have 3 comps though, you will need to keel all of them).
4. Add the cost per square foot of each of the remaining comps and divide this total by the number of comps you have used. The result is the average cost per square foot for all the comps.
5. Finally, take this average cost per sq tf and multiply it by the total square feet of the home you are evaluating. The result is the estimated fair market value for your prospective property in the specific area right now. So example: (these are arbituary numbers and I will only do one set of calcs and then pretend some numbers for the other two sources of info.): Home I am evalutating is:1,675 sqft3 bed and 2.5 bath2 car garageon 1 acre of landQuestion => What is the FMV of this home?

1) Pretend I search MLS and I find 7 properties that are similar to the home I am evaluating:

comp 1: $167,500/1750 sq ft = $95.71 per sq. ft.
comp 2: $220,450/1600 sq ft = $137.79
comp 3: $150,000/1450 sq ft = $103.45
comp 4: $210,000/1650 sq ft = $127.27
comp 5: $250,045/1700 sq ft = $147.08
comp 6: $190,000/1690 sq ft = $112.43
comp 7: $205,120/1675 sq ft = $122.46

2) Discard Highest and Lowest value, or $147.08 and $95.71 3) Now add all remaining comps together and divide by the number left: 137.79 103.45 127.27 112.43+122.46------------= $603.4/5 = $120.68 per sq feet for your the home you are currently evaluating.
3) Now Do these same steps for zillow.com and the other websites comps, then average all 3 costs per square feet together for actual cost per square feet example: MLS cost per sq ft = $120.68Zillow cost per sq ft = $130.43Other website cost per sq ft = $118.69 120.68 + 130.43+ 118.69 = 369.8/3 = $123.27 is actual cost per sq ft.)
4) Multiply cost per square foot by total sq ft of the home you are evaluating: 123.27 x 1675 = $206,471.67 is the FMV of your home. Now that you have the FMV of your home, what you do is do your Fast cash formula and subtract all your expenses including your profit from the FMV and the result is your Max Offering Price. Example:
$206,471.67-
10,000.00 (rehab cost)-
7,000.00 (holding cost)-
8,000.00 (closing costs)-
20,500.00 (realtor commission)-
20,000.00 (your profit)=
$140,971.67 = Max Offer Price 30%-50% below FMV (206,471.67) is btw $103,235.84 - $144,530.17; So your offer price should be btw these numbers. As you can see though, your Max offer price is lower than 144,530 or (30% of FMV) so no matter what you should not go over the MOP if you want to make a profit. No, there is no other way to weed through everything to get more offers put in unless you hire someone to help you do the calcs. Or maybe having your realtor help out. Other than that, its best to take your time and do a quality job then a quantity job. Make sense? Anyways, hope that helps bud, take care and good luck.

Regards, Kristoffer Barnes
Cash Flow Financial Solutions

Just to let you guys know, when running comps on realestateabc.com, the information that is posted is provided by Zillow.com, so if you are using the two sites independently to pull comps, you are actually looking at the same information - because it all comes from Zillow. You really need to get an agent or title agency to pull the most current and accurate for you to be on the money.

Thanks,

Mati
Mid Atlantic Property Management, LLC

I'm curious as to how others are getting valid comps from MLS in this market where not much is selling right now. So far for every CMA I've run no similar properties are pulling up in MLS that have been sold within the last year and a half. The majority have been listed in the MLS for over a year or the listing has been pulled.

Tony

Kris Barnes U are a master at this investment biz.... I learn so much info. when you post!!! Thanks for all your knowledge.... Shalom!!