How to monitor your home's value like a pro

If you're a homeowner, you should be concerned with what your home is worth - even if it's going to be a while before you sell. Why? Well a few reasons, you don't want to spend too much on upgrades. Having the most expensive home in a neighborhood is often an unprofitable venture. We are told that upgrades are best spent on the kitchen, then the bathrooms. If there's money left on the table, disseminate that how you please. Most of the time, I see flooring upgrades and paint at the top of the priority list. Regardless of how much or how little you spend, many people have been watching "Zestimates" from Zillow and believing that that is their actual property value. I've heard other people tell me that their home is worth exactly what it says on the tax rolls. What you need to understand about home values is: a home, or anything for that matter, is worth what someone is willing to pay for it. That being said, we can look a comparable homes that have sold in the area to derive a market temperature and this temperature is expressed in dollars per square foot ($/sq ft). Using $/sq ft simplifies the process of driving value and works for MOST properties in this area. In the typicial neighborhood in Pensacola, I am dealing with similar homes. One active property might have a pool, one recent sale might have a double garage while the subject property has no pool and a single garage. We can work with these factors and add or subtract replacement costs to come up with a price evaluation. When deriving value for say, a 100 acre farm with multiple $100k horse barns, ponds, and timber land, for example, the equation gets more difficult because there are many factors involved. In a situation like this, I'm having to order a timber cruiser to get timber value, I'm looking at price per acre for the land, replacement cost of the home and barns, what a pond might be worth, the cost of fencing 100 acres (this could cost 50k-70k alone). You get the idea. In properties like this we like to go out further to get comps. We may have to get back a year or two in the time frame and expand the search to 4 or 5 counties. There's also price testing involved. I've put together a link here to get a quick, rough etimate of your home's value. If you'd like me to send you updated sales in your neighborhood once a month, just hit "Email Us" and I'll set you up. My system is currently connected with Escambia and Santa Rosa Counties. If you're in Okaloosa or somewhere else, let me know, we can do that through another system. Get my home's value in Escambia county. Get my home's value in Santa Rosa County