It's easy to understand and agree upon the value of some homes, but quite difficult for some others.  What is the difference?  It all comes down to how easy it is to find recent comparable sales.

EASY:  If the home we are trying to evaluate exists within a neighborhood where all homes are relatively similar in age, square footage, architectural style, etc., it's often easy to understand the value of the home.  Assuming some of these quite-similar homes have sold recently, we simply need to make minor adjustments to the sales prices of the comparable homes and we can quickly get a good feel for the value of the house.

HARD:  When you start to throw any unique factors into the mix, it can become quite difficult to agree upon the value of a home.  For example, if the house is on a busy road, or has great views, or is on several acres, or is close to town but offers privacy -- all of these factors affect value, but it is usually difficult to find recently sold comparable homes that share all or most of these unique traits.

In the HARD category above, you'll find yourself with some relatively similar comparable properties (either sold, or for sale), but with no easy way to adjust those comparable properties' values to better understand the subject property's value.  In such a case, we have to do some mental not-math in our heads to come to a position on value.  What I mean is this..... we can't look in a book or perform some analysis to determine the value difference between a house on two acres on Indian Trail Road versus a home on four acres on Pleasant Valley Road.  Not only that, but there are likely even more unique factors in each property beyond location and lot size.  Thus, we're left with consuming all of the information about all of the properties and then coming to some sort of a range of understood value for a particular property.

The process I am describing above is relevant both to a seller pricing a property for sale, as well as to a buyer considering making an offer on a listed property.  In both cases, there is not an obvious, clear answer to the value of a particular home.  Analysis and math can only take us so far in with these unique properties!

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Have any questions? Contact Scott Rogers at 540-578-0102 or scott@funkhousergroup.com