Knowing the accurate market value of a property is useful for several reasons. Perhaps, like these homeowners listing their properties for sale or rent,¹ you also want to determine the current value of your property. Maybe you’re on a quest to find your ideal home, just like a home buyer on City-Data Forum who posted about researching property values to inform their negotiations and avoid overpaying.² Having an exact appraisal of a home’s fair market price helps owners set expectations and buyers make informed offers. This article introduces 5 methods to find out the value of a property.

How Do You Know the Value of a Property?

Many people are curious about the current value of their property, as they purchased them in a different age.³ Property values can be estimated because they are driven by market conditions and comparable sales data. Market analysis tools evaluate previous selling prices of similar homes in the same area to determine general pricing ranges. They factor in attributes like square footage, age, renovations, and neighborhood to fine-tune a specific property’s projected value.

By leveraging vast sales records databases and proprietary algorithms, some market tools can produce accurate automated valuations and price predictions for individual properties. This methodology allows estimates of property values to be data-based and reflects the dynamics of the local real estate market.

Option 1: Visit tax assessors’ sites

Tax assessor websites allow you to look up a property’s assessed value by searching its address, providing a starting point for understanding its market value. They can be found through county and city government portals across the USA, as property assessments are handled at the local level.

However, assessed values may not fully reflect current market prices and should be considered along with other estimates. Property assessments are done at different times each year to calculate taxes, so they may not match up with appraised or market values if those have changed. While tax sites give helpful property details, assessed values often lag in hot markets and don’t factor in all demand drivers. Overall, tax assessor valuations are useful but limited, so they should be combined with other price estimation tools to get a complete picture.

Option 2: Property Value Search by Address with BeenVerified

BeenVerified is a powerful search engine on the market that provides comprehensive public data about people. It allows you to discover related information about a property, including its market value, by simply entering the address you wish to search for. It will display a comprehensive yet easy-to-understand report on the property you are interested in. Moreover, it keeps track of the status of a report and gives instant notifications whenever a detail about the subject is changed as well.

Follow the steps below to search for the value of a property with BeenVerified:

1. Go to BeenVerified’s official website.
2. Select Address Lookup, enter an address and click SEARCH.
3. It may take a few seconds for BeenVerified to scan its database. BeenVerified will then return a neat and detailed report disclosing information of the property when available.

Option 3: Lookup the Value of an Address with PeopleLooker

As a strong People Search tool that enables easy and affordable access for people to public record information, PeopleLooker allows you to search for possible market value and details of an address by putting it in its search box. It is one of the most uncomplicated people search sites and is characterized by its neat design and user-friendly UI.

Here’s how to discover more information about an address with PeopleLooker:

1. Go to the search page of PeopleLooker.
2. Enter an address and click SEARCH NOW.
3. PeopleLooker will check the information against millions of public records in its database. Once finished, you will receive a detailed report, from which you can learn more about a property.

Option 4: Contact a local real estate agent

Getting in touch with an area real estate agent is one way to find out the potential market value of a property. Agents can give estimates for homes whether they are currently for sale or not. For properties not on the market, agents will research details like recent sales of comparable homes nearby and local pricing trends to come up with a projected value. They factor in specifics of the property itself too, like square footage, bedrooms, and overall condition. So connecting with a knowledgeable local real estate professional can provide useful insight on the current value of a home, which is helpful for buyers, sellers, or if you’re just curious about a certain address.

Option 5: Check with your bank or mortgage company

Banks and mortgage companies regularly appraise properties they finance in order to mitigate risk. As part of the mortgage approval process, they conduct thorough valuations to ensure the property could be sold to recover loan costs if needed. These appraisals account for all factors that impact local real estate markets and individual home values. Since banks have detailed insight into property values from the appraisal process, they can provide homeowners with an accurate estimate of their home’s current worth.

Evolution of Property Valuation:

Determining the value of a property has been a longstanding practice dating back centuries, evolving and transforming significantly over time. Back in the day, property values were measured using age-old methods like land surveys, appraisals, or even estimations based on location and physical attributes. Believe it or not, factors like land quality, fertility, and how close a property was to vital resources had a huge say in determining its worth back in ancient times.

Venture far back into history, and you’ll find ancient civilizations such as Egypt setting the stage for the earliest property valuation systems. They were the trailblazers, employing basic land measurement techniques and tax assessments, leaving us with some of the oldest records of property valuation practices. As societies continued to evolve, so did the approach to evaluating property. This evolution brought about property taxes, used to gauge land values and contributions to the state.

Steering through the ages, the Middle Ages saw a more structured approach to property valuation as feudal systems took shape. Property value was hinged on agricultural productivity or its potential to rake in income, mirroring the landlord-tenant dynamics prevalent during that era. As history progressed, the Renaissance and Industrial Revolution sparked changes in property valuation to align with the changing economic and societal landscape.

Cut to the present, and property valuation has taken on a whole new level of sophistication, merging various methodologies and cutting-edge technologies. Assessments today don’t just factor in land quality; they encompass market trends, comparative sales, and intricate algorithms. Technological marvels like Geographic Information Systems (GIS), big data analytics, and machine learning have redefined property valuation, making assessments more precise and efficient.

In our modern world, determining property values is a fusion of classic methods, legal structures, and technological leaps. Experts the likes of appraisers, real estate agents, and data analysts play pivotal roles in ensuring property valuations are as spot-on and trustworthy as they can be. The quest for an accurate property valuation remains paramount in real estate transactions, financial planning, and legal circles, painting a vivid picture of the ever-evolving practices in property valuation across centuries.

FAQ

That’s the end of this post. Hope you’ll find these methods helpful for searching for the market value of a property by address. If you have any questions or suggestions, please don’t hesitate to leave us a comment below, thanks!

1. [LeoNYC]. (2009, Oct 9). Want to rent out my condo, how do I calculate land value? (square foot, appraised) [Online forum post]. City-Data Forum. https://www.city-data.com/forum/real-estate/785424-want-rent-out-my-condo-how.html; r/RealEstate. (2018, Jun 23). How do I find out how much my house is worth selling? [Online forum post]. Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/14ldk2x/how_do_i_find_out_how_much_my_house_is_worth/ ↩︎
2. [eswrede]. (2009, May 20). View tax and purchasing a house (Washington: sales, real estate, assessor) [Online forum post]. City-Data Forum. https://www.city-data.com/forum/new-hampshire/654079-view-tax-purchasing-house.html ↩︎
3. r/RealEstate [Northern_Sierras]. (2015, Feb 21). How do I know how much my house is worth? [Online forum post]. Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/RealEstate/comments/2wmxm1/how_do_i_know_how_much_my_house_is_worth/  ↩︎