As with any intricate financial investment, there are many layers of data that dictate whether the market is in your favor. Additionally, life tends to happen to us, and buying or selling your home may not be an option that you could do at your leisure. Let’s dip into some ideas for those that may have to sell or buy a home for the first time and are not sure where to start.
Your Market
Most importantly, when researching how to either purchase or sell your home, you will want to make sure that you are comparing your property to similar properties in your market. If you have a 3 bedroom, 2 baths, ranch-style, single-family home with an above-ground pool, you will want to compare it to houses as similar as possible and in your housing authority.
If you are getting your home appraised, this is one of the top factors that appraisers look into to determine your property value. If you’re asking yourself right now, “How much is my home worth?” you can review the topics in this post and apply them to your decision-making.
The best way to get an accurate insight into your property’s value, you will want to check all of the most recently sold homes in your area. This is going to give you the most up-to-date information regarding your local market.
Location
There are a few key categories that determine your location. In regards to your property, what is the quality of local schools? Are there an array of job opportunities in your area? What is the proximity to shops, hospitals, highways, or public parks?
The market analysis looks into all of these factors when determining value. However, you do have to look at your average buyer. If there are buyers in your market willing to pay extra to be closer or further away from certain locations, then that will weigh into if your property will be valued higher or lower. This is why it is it is vital to research within your market.
Determining your market can be done by researching your HOA, your townships, and your school districts. Then you can map a region around your home and use the similarities between your property and others in your community.
Living Space
When you are shopping for homes, you usually see the square footage and the price per square footage. This is generally based on your specific market once again, but there are some things to understand about how your square footage is determined.
What makes your home most valuable is the usable space available. Your garage, while it may be a great place to keep your vehicle and offer tons of space for those who are avid collectors, does not count toward your usable space. What is going to boost your usable space is your number of bedrooms and bathrooms. This is vital to buyers in virtually every market.
So if at any point in your homeownership, you did some renovations or additions that included adding usable space, this is going to contribute to getting the most value with your property. For those who have not, maybe you should look into these simple yet effective ways to boost your home’s value.
Age and Condition
With technology racing forward, homes will need to live up to standards that we may need to implement in the future. Recently built homes will have the best electrical, plumbing, and other factors that will contribute to their sustainability and upkeep. Buyers aren’t looking to purchase their dream home just to have to spend thousands on repairs.
This is why a lot of buyers use inspection contingencies. Inspection contingencies can help the buyer with compromise power to have certain items fixed or promised or the can cancel the contract. For a seller, the more updated and ready to be moved in, the smoother this process will be.
Overall Economy
The housing market is just like any of our other financial markets, in that all of it is based upon supply and demand. In regards to this, if towns are not experiencing growth in employment and wages, then fewer households will be able to afford a home. This can drive the demand down and cause a poor selling environment.
Contrarily, you can have a market in which interest rates are lower and that creates a demand for homes. Ultimately you have to look at the time frame in which you are buying or selling and see how the current market is. This is usually out of the control of us regular home buying citizens, but its a great place to start to navigate your property value journey.
Whether you are in the position to plan your next home experience, these factors will come into play for determining the value of your home.