I’m starting to think that I should call our real estate broker and get our house appraised!
Every week we receive a few promo flyers from the various real estate agents or companies that work in our area and the prices of houses around here have just gone up and up since we purchased our home in June of 2001.
One of the real estate flyers we got today is for an open house for a detached home less than a block away from my house. I know exactly which house it is, and even though it’s detached (small walkway between houses – which means no driveway, no garage etc) there’s no way that this house is any bigger than my own. In fact it might even be smaller.
Plus, we have a shared driveway. This house doesn’t even have a driveway! We’d have to share our drive with our neighbor if she had a car with maybe one of us parking on the street every second week or something, but at least we have a driveway and space between our houses!
Take a wild guess how much the asking price is?
$499,000! Uh huh. Really.
We bought our house 6 years ago for less than 200,000 and at that time it was a steal because the rest of the houses in the neighborhood were going at $250,000 plus. The owners needed to sell the house to move into their new retirement home by a certain date. That’s why we got such a great deal on a solid house – new roof, new windows, new water pipes. There was nothing we had to do to fix up the house.
So I figure our semi-detached house would go for about $400,000 – perhaps even without or reno complete!
Not that we are planning on moving anytime soon. I mean, if we moved we’d more than likely end up purchasing a house about the same size in the $400,000 + range since the market is high right now. We’d gain, but the new house would be expensive.
Still it’d be nice to get our home appraised just to see what it would be worth on todays real estate market. Unless a prospective buyer hates yard work of any kind I’m sure our landscaped front and backyard gardens would help set the price a bit higher too.
Have you ever had your home appraised just for the heck of it to see what it would be worth if you decided to sell?
I was thinking of doing this same thing. I paid a bargain price of $100,000 for my home with 5 acres. Houses around here are going triple that….I can’t imagine it being worth that much. It makes me smile….as you are probably smiling too.
Since I am from California I am used to astronomical appreciation and high prices.
Your real estate company or a mortgage broker should be able to give you a comparable value without any cost.
What will you do with the equity?
Well house values have appreciated astronomically the past five years here in the US. Flap is right that your real estate broker should be able to give you a comparable value. Also, there are websites that you can go to such as housevalues.com but I’m not sure if it covers Canada.
Wow! I want to contact a broker or someone too. We went for a walk last night and grabbed a flyer for a house for sale – a house that is the exact model as ours. They are listed for about $35K more then what we paid – barely a year and a half ago. I don’t think they will get that price, but I am definitely keeping my eye on it!
Yes, one day the internet will rule the roost with more information than the local multiple listing services can provide.
And the newspapers will have to obtain another source of revenue. In fact, their ads have decreased dramatically.
But, does Canada have these real estate services?
I don’t see why not.
It is always helpful to have your property appraised every year or so.
You don’t want any huge equity increases lying dormant for too long!
As someone always trying to get out of the Real Estate business for 17 years I can give you some free advise…
You home is only worth what someone is willing to pay.
PERIOD.
An appraiser can say that by comparing 3-4 homes in your area he can come up with an estimated value, however, he could value it at 450, but if no one will buy it and it sold for 300 – the value is 300.
The most confusing issue for people to understand value is that a home is only worth what someone is willing to pay. When it comes right down to it, it doesn’t matter what your neighbor does or doesn’t do. A whole neighborhood could list their homes for sale, and the one that sells is the one priced for the buyer to afford without extra work once they move in. Oddly, the buyers set the value.
You can run a free estimate through zillow.com who will compare recent home sales in your area for an idea of what the market is doing where you live –
Hope this helps.
Catherine, the redhead
That zillow.com site is cool.
I just put in my old house that I sold 6 years ago and now want to go out and shoot myself – just kidding.
Thanks
The price is growing everywhere. Also here in Europe… When you can than buy because you are paying same loan but rent is going up.