It’s important to know how much your house is worth no matter what you want to do with your property (selling or buying). Before asking a real estate agent, it’s recommended to check house value with online tools, so as to have a well-rounded understanding of your (potential) property. This post introduces 6 methods to estimate home value by third-party or official websites.

What affects house value?

• Internal factors: Number of bedrooms & bathrooms, square footage, recent upgrades, condition of the house, curb appeal, year built, and more.
• Exterior factors: Location, market activity, local political issues, transportation, employment opportunities, traffic noise, and so on.

1. Online valuation tools

You can find numerous automated valuation models online: Zillow, Redfin, Realtor and more. These estimators compare your home to recently sold properties in the area to offer your a possible sale price. The number may be general and vague, but it’s a good starting point to determine how much your house is worth.

After you enter an address, you will get a brief estimated value of the house. However, if you want more precise results, check the tools below which not only provide estimated value but also sale history, taxes and ownership details.

2. Property search tools — detailed results

If you’re planning to purchase a house, you’d better run a property search – to figure out owners’ and residents’ details, area statistics, sex offenders nearby, and so on. To sell your house, value and sale history help you determine a competitive price. Note that these are paid services, and you may need to sign up an account.

Option 1 House value lookup with BeenVerified

Run a reverse address lookup with BeenVerified to search millions of property values, deeds, owners, transactions and more! Founded in 2007, it has helped people reconnect with old neighbors, make better decisions when buying a home, verify info about online sellers, get to know new neighbors and more. You can trust its detailed and confidential property report to figure out everything about a house.

What you may find on BeenVerified’s property report?

Here’s how it works:

1. Go to BeenVerified property search page.
2. Enter an address and click SEARCH.
   
3. The algorithm will comb through the database and render a report which includes every piece of information related to this address, such as the current owner’s contact info, property specifics, home value, sale reports, and neighborhood info.
   

Option 2 Property value check with Spokeo

Spokeo is another search tool providing reserve address lookup. It organizes billions of public records from county assessors, white page listings, and property owner data to search who lives at an address. Likewise, you can check house value by simply entering an address on its search page.

3. Check county or municipal websites

County auditors periodically assess the value of properties for adjusting property tax. Therefore, you can look up the assessed value of your house by searching this public information online. Just google your county/state name plus assessor property, and you can find the corresponding government portal. Then enter an address and you’ll get the house’s estimated value in seconds.

4. FHFA house price index

Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) releases the house price index (HPI) monthly, a broad measure of the movement of single-family house prices. It’s a comprehensive collection of public, freely available house price indexes that measure changes in single-family home values based on data from all 50 states and over 400 American cities. You can use this data to check the trends of your area’s house prices.

5. Local real estate agent

The easiest way to dive deeper into your house value involves asking a local real estate agent directly. Though not as detailed as the above methods, they are able to evaluate the home and market to estimate house value, typically for listing purposes.

6. Hire an appraiser

A professional home appraiser assess and determine the market value of a property. This valuation may be considered for various purposes, such as real estate transactions, taxation, insurance, and refinancing. You can hire one to check house value for you.

Typically, their job starts with property inspection including physical examination, measurement and documentation. Later, they analyzes recent sales of comparable properties in the neighborhood or local market. Market trends like economic conditions are also taken into consideration. After that, they determine a fair market value of the property and generate a report.

What do these values mean?

• Fair market value (FMV) — the price an asset would sell for on the open market when certain conditions are met (the parties involved are aware of all the facts, are acting in their own interest, are free of any pressure to buy or sell, and have ample time to make the decision).
• Appraised value — a professional judgment of a property’s worth, which may not correspond to its actual market value or selling price. This evaluation is performed by a professional appraiser during the mortgage origination process.
• Assessed value — a property’s determined valuation to calculate the appropriate tax rates. It takes into consideration the value of comparable properties in the area, among other factors, and is calculated as a percentage of the FMV in many cases.